Lylia Letum and Kayla Hartland's The Descent
by Kermitwaffle
Summary: Sequel to The Flight. Starring mostly OC characters, but containing a handful of the original series's characters.
1. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten: The Awkward Tale of Halloween

(Yeah. It's that awkward.)

October's end rolled around just before the students of Hogwarts could drown in their workload of the fall, bringing delight in its shower of multicoloured leaves and cold winds. The kids all knew the zenith of the season: the Halloween Dance. As the night of the 31st grew closer, the population of the school sorted itself into pairs within which they would attend the dance.

That is, to say… _Most_ of them found a date to it. A Ravenclaw curled up in her favourite spot of the Library did not.

So it happened that Lylia Letum found herself single as she snuck into the Slytherin dormitories to help Kayla with her outfit, five hours prior to the dance. Kayla had Melinda doing her hair.

"How can I help?" asked Lylia as she plopped down onto the stone by a wall. "I see you haven't made your mask yet."

"Would you be able to?" Kayla gave a smile. "It's going to be like… that Asian Lung you fought."

"But green?" guessed her friend as she examined the hem of the silky emerald gown on Kayla's bed.

"Exactly."

"So, where's Karen?" conversed Lylia as she began to glue individual 'scales' onto a green mask. "If I could find my way in here, I'm certain she could."

"She won't be going tonight," sighed Melinda regretfully. "She feels ill. Although," now she grinned, "I doubt she'd want to go with anyone but that _you-know-which_ teacher anyway."

"Oh…" Lylia paused for a second before resuming the fastening of scales. "That's a bummer…"

"I know she wouldn't want us to miss out on it, though," smiled Melinda supportively. "Speaking of the dance, who's going to be taking you, Lylia? I know Kayla and I have our dates getting ready."

"Oh," Lylia repeated distantly. "I don't have a date… I don't think I'll really be going."

"You're joking!" pouted Melinda. "Come ON, Lylia. If you didn't hang around books every hour, you'd definitely have someone by now!"

Lylia's determined stare quieted the protests. "If there's something in there about an embodiment of Death, or the Addonexi, or anything like that, I'm going to find it."

"You're gonna go crazy, talking like that," mumbled Melinda as she just kept styling Kayla's hair.

"I have a couple books that need returning," chuckled the blonde as she stood, setting down the finished mask to let it dry. Without waiting for farewells, she left for the Common Room, where she found a dark-skinned Slytherin boy charming serpentine scales onto Draco's face itself. As Draco began to turn his head to look at Lylia, his costumer gave a growl:

"Move again, and I'm going to slice open your tongue."

Lylia smirked, her arms folding. "Why not? It'll look more like a snake's that way."

"Letum, don't-"

"I like." The darker boy had a smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he flicked his wand in a particularly-vicious addition of the next scale, making Draco give a small yelp. He winced and raised a hand to his face that was swatted away quickly by the boy decorating him.

"Letum. Who're you going with?" Draco made a face.

"I don't think I am, actually," Lylia tried to not laugh. "No one's asked me, you see."

The authoritative dresser stopped assaulting Draco's face with scales long enough to turn to Lylia, stepping forward and inspecting her quietly. Lylia glanced between his angular face and Draco's greened one, pink flooding her cheeks in the unease. The observing boy then stopped, met her gaze with dark brown eyes, and asked:

"Go with me?"

"… Sure." Lylia didn't really have the means with which to conjure a reason not to go with this stranger. Except that he was a stranger. "… Who are you?"

The boy grinned, taking her hand and brushing his lips across the back of it. "Blaise Zabini, at your service. What's your name, beautiful lady?"

Draco watched all of this incredulously, laughing in disbelief at the absurdity. Then:

"I-I'm Lylia," the shocked girl responded, her blush deepening at the suave nature of her new acquaintance. "Lylia Letum."

This sent Draco into a small fit of hysterical laughter. Blaise silently split his tongue without turning or dropping his pseudo-sweet smile.

"You should be getting ready," Blaise went on. "I'll walk you to your Tower, Lylia." As he departed with his new date, one hand resting on her lower back and keeping her blush persistent, Blaise smirked over his shoulder as Draco stumbled off to his dorm so he could examine his new tongue with horror.

"I was thinking of the whole 'Angel of Death' look." Blaise kept his eyes unbendingly on the path ahead of them as they traversed the halls. At hearing this comment, Lylia gave a not-so-graceful stumble.

"B-beg pardon-?"

Thankfully catching the girl by slipping his hand fully around her waist, Blaise gave a debonair smile. "You know- all black, feathers, artistically-torn clothing…?"

"I… bet it'll look good on you," Lylia shyly drew herself a respectable distance from Blaise as she straightened. With a nervous little wave, she turned away and, after answering the knocker's riddle, vanished inside the Tower.

Blaise watched in an almost predatorial way before turning and ambling back to the Slytherin living area. He began to pull together his costume, then started on a pair of wings. Over the course of four hours, a wire skeleton of angel wings came to life with ash-coloured feathers, the ends of a few actually smoldering. The mask was made of tightly packed black feathers with gray feathers creating a masculine yet genteel filigree around his right eye that enhanced his smoky gaze. He arrived at the dance in soft leather breeches ripped with a peculiar elegance, the leather vest serving as a top frayed at all the edges and showing off his thin yet muscular frame. He left a feather or two burning on the floor in his wake, and in his hand he held an entirely black rose with a stem made of black silk and petals comprising of midnight lace.

Kayla arrived in the shimmering, slinky green dress that had been in her dormitory earlier; its bends and folds wrapped around her in stunning imitation of the Lung's coils. Her hair was curled in perfect complementation of the dress's style, and every bit of the green enhanced her hazel eyes to a sharpening degree. At her side was her escort, Draco; he matched her in the green, reptilian attire, his living mask of scales charmed all around his eyes. Somehow, Draco Malfoy made green snakeskin look good.

"How is it?" he smiled over at his date, his forked tongue darting in and out from between his lips as a knee-jerk reaction. "Sssstunning?"

The Asian Lung laughed at the serpent's new speech impediment. "Let's say that."

The dark and seductive Zabini remained patiently at the side of the Great Hall, making mental notes here and there of those entering and exiting. Melinda made her entrance soon, her playful smirk perfectly suiting her fox mask. She tugged her vermilion tail close behind her to avoid anyone stepping on it. After giving a vulpine snarl at one hare-costumed firstie who almost _did_, her eyes wandered over the floating Jack-o-lanterns, the round black tables now dotting the edges of the dance floor, and each table's festooning of genuine spidersilk. An iron maiden hung from one ceiling's corner, serving as a charmed speaker for the dance's cheerfully macabre music. From above the dusky black clouds of the ceiling swirled and growled down harmlessly at the partygoers.

A line of the original Great Hall tables bordered one wall, supporting numerous cauldrons filled with gruesome treats. Fudge flies, white chocolate skulls, chocolate bars in the shapes of full skeletons, chocoballs with strawberry crème, creamy cauldron cakes, and the marshmallow-and-frosting-topped confections of full milk chocolate cauldrons all laid in and around the containers. Blood lollipops, taffy bats, chocolate and peanut butter coffins, and a veritable plethora of puddings and tarts also awaited their tasty demises.

It was at these tables that Melinda tracked down her own date. Unfortunately.

"Haynes…? What are you… WEARING?"

The Prefect grunted his answer through a mouthful of gummy ants. "I'm a bagger. Bagger. Badger!" The last word was barked after an obstructing swallow.

"You're a HUFFLEPUFF, Haynes?"

"I'll haff you know, honey baggers are capable uf mauling a hooman whole," stated Aidon as he stuffed more of the doomed gummies into his mouth.

As the clouds above the Hall parted to show a glorious full moon, Lylia reservedly brought herself into the dance. Around her feet trailed the hem of a gown as white and pure as the lunar beams that blessed the ebb and flow of its form over fair skin. A strip of gossamer caressed her upper arms in the semblance of ethereal sleeves, tiny rhinestones dotting in delicate patterns on her lower arms. A pair of columbine white wings unfolded hesitantly on her back, a matching mask over her face bearing a single curve of black feathers tracing around her left eye.

Blaise stopped in his conversation with Kayla and Draco as he saw the entrant, his eyes widened in pure shock and his lips uttered a soft oath. "If that is an Angel of Death… Let me die now to be in her arms…"

"Lylia?" Kayla looked on with her own level of amazement.

White-clad Death went to get a drink of blood-red punch from one of the treat tables, not noticing her nocturnal counterpart until Blaise was already by her side. He offered the rose with a charming grin.

"I thought you were beautiful before… Why, now you outshine everyone here!" He gave a bow in praise; but Lylia just smiled, blushed, and accepted the rose.

Draco and Kayla observed the duo from a corner's circular table, wary of their housemate's fixation on the Ravenclaw. Haynes blissfully continued to scarf down sweets, impervious to the lean panther at his side that was leaning barely on the table until it muttered something about the 'girl in white.'

"I added a scent to the lace… Just to add a faint surrealism bit, you know?" Blaise went on, his eyes gleaming in assumed pride over his work. "Go on, smell it!"

Lylia lowered her head to do so, but before she could inhale it she felt a furry hand rest on her shoulder. "YIKES!"

"Letum?" Aidon drew his badger-paw off and gave a smile through his hair-matted mask.

"Oh! Hanes!" sighed Lylia in relief. "You scared me…"

"I'm going to go have a chat as well," Draco said to Kayla as he started toward the group. "Care to come along?"

"No, thank you," Kayla declined as she turned to her drink of punch. "I'd rather not talk with Zabini. He's an incessant ladies' man."

Giving a small smile at realizing her protective nature, Draco just nodded to his date and headed to his male housemate.

"Who's this?" Aidon scrutinized Blaise carefully. "Ah, Zabini…" He himself seemed a bit taken aback by the known flirt's accomplishment in acquiring Lylia. "Nice to, erm, see you…"

"Thank you," Blaise stiffened as he stared down the badger. "Interesting costume."

The uncomfortable, striped mammal version of Aidon looked around in the discomfiting silence before strolling as unnoticeably as he could away, dragged halfway along by Melinda as the Slytherin girl demanded a dance. Lylia's attention turned again to the synthetic rose, lifting it for a brief second and taking in a deep whiff. Blaise grinned widely as Lylia's legs gave out from under her, scooping up the half-conscious girl already under the charm's effect. He broke his attention away from her only to silently cast a Confundus Charm on Draco, sending him right back the way he came. It was in a tender fashion that Blaise toted Lylia in his arms out of the dining hall, giving the excuse of taking his exhausted friend to the Hospital Wing.

His footfalls led nowhere near the infirmary, and he instead rushed up to the deserted Divination Tower with a Disillusionment Charm cast over them as they went. Neither Aidon, nor Draco, nor Melinda, nor Kayla noticed the pair's disappearance. The only guest to do so was a silent panther that had left immediately after the two students. Lylia dazedly tried to focus on the passing overhead arches, her mind clouded in the numbing scent of the false flower.

"Blaise…? What's… going on…?"

"Don't worry, love, you'll be fine," crooned her dark company that was increasingly making her concerned. He held her in a gentle embrace that was betrayed in sincerity only by the fact that he had essentially drugged her.

Karen heard distant footsteps from outside the infirmary before she saw her visitor in the doorway. Raising her pale head, her smile soon failed. "Professor Lesto… No. You…? Why are YOU here?"

Blaise laid Lylia down carefully on a premade bed, his eyes gleaming fiercely in the dim light. "My darling… My beautiful Angel of Death…"

The immobilized blonde stared fearfully up into the black eyes absorbing her, her mind struggling to no avail from her limbs. Her mind raced for some sort of reason as to how Blaise would know of her recently-found identity.

"Ms. Lylia Letum… Oh, yes… I have waited such a long time to be with you… My mistress." He snatched one of her hands and kissed every finger in a servile manner, rubbing his cheek against her hand with a deep and pathological gleam in his eye that didn't match the sharp and sensible Slytherin. The madness belonged to something deeper. "The Scythe… has for so long missed his master. So clever was the Scythe, so clever! But now… reunited! I shall consume life, any life upon your command! Command me, my mistress!"

The horror in Lylia's mind finally found its way to her hand, and she tried her best to jerk it away from the madman. "Let GO of me!" Her captor only held her hand tighter.

"Please, Mistress! Please accept your servant! I have dreamed of nothing but our reuniting ever since our incarnation!"

"HOMENUM REVELIO!" bellowed a voice from the entrance's aperture, making the two teens on the bed visible once more. Elden gave a growl as he slid off his panther mask, glaring envenomed daggers at the man poised over Lylia. "What the hell-?"

Blaise looked calmly at Elden. Within a second a jet of violet light flew from his wand concealed behind one of the false wings. He leaped after the spell; his hands groped wildly for the half-Veela's neck. While Elden deflected the spell with his honed reflexes, the actual physical assault knocked him clean onto his back. He used his wand as a bar to press horizontally up against Blaise's chin, trying his best to fight back the threat seeking to strangle him. His mind concentrated on a single sentence as his hands pressed desperately up with his wand in resistance to Blaise. A borrowed ring glimmered on his hand.

Meanwhile, the rest of their friends were in the Great Hall, seeking a missing Malfoy. Kayla was, obviously, doing so more frantically than the others. It came as even more distress to her when Melinda yelped and drew off her own ring, examining the message inside with confusion.

"It's… Lylia? Trouble at Divination?"

"Lylia and Zabini…" Kayla paled as the revelation dawned on her, and she scanned the dance floor. "They're not here anymore."

Blaise sank a knee into Elden's groin and forced a pained grunt from the necromancer, his untamed hands scratching at any and all exposed skin he could reach. The cruel nails lodged themselves in Elden's face, dragging down and trailing eight deep gashes behind them. His combatant, instead of giving the scream of pain his senses demanded of him, jabbed his wand into the chest of the insane attacker thirsting for his demise and let loose a slew of spells.

"Stupefy! Expelliarmus! Mobilicorpus!"

Even as he was blown off of Elden and hit the nearest wall, Blaise's let his mad laughter ring out while he slid to an unconscious and bound heap on the floor. Lylia struggled through the haze in her mind enough to sit up; her frightened eyes were glued to the bleeding man who made his own battle in standing up, violet-tinged eyes focused on azure ones. It was then that Melinda and Kayla rushed in, the latter running to Lylia and embracing the girl while Melinda just stared around in shock.

"What… happened if…? If Lesperance didn't… then what would've happened…?" asked the blonde shakily, her watch still on the unblinking stare of Elden's eyes. Something in them snared her attention and held her focus unsparingly.

Kayla held her friend's shoulders as she followed Lylia's line of sight, her expression turning horrified at the sight of Elden. "Holy Hell." She went to dab at the blood with a handkerchief withdrawn from her pocket. "We need to get you two to the Hospital Wing."

The elder Ravenclaw jerked away from the care before Kayla could make contact, spitting blood aside. "I'll take her… Go find Malfoy. He looked rather bewitched."

Melinda followed a renewedly-frantic Kayla back down the Divination Tower.

McGonagall was returning to her office from the dance when she saw Draco Malfoy knocking at her door.

"… Mr. Malfoy?" Her eyebrows raised. "Can I help you…?"

Malfoy eyed her confusedly. "… Is that who I am? Where am I…?"

Elden made his way to Lylia's side and wordlessly bore her up into his arms, beginning the long journey to the Hospital Wing. His blood-tainted gaze strayed from the emptied, darkened line of paintings they were bypassing and noticed her troubled expression.

"What?"

"Why did you come and help after you said-"

"I stated that I could be whole again by being worthy, didn't I?" Elden stared around at the lack of scenery instead of meeting the inquisitive blue eyes.

"Well, what do you mean by _that_?" Lylia's stare remained stationary on her old adversary.

"Nothing sentimental, Death. I'll know it when I feel it."

"Hm… And how do those scratches feel?" Lylia folded her arms, not quite sure how to take the title Elden gave her.

"Worth the pain."

The blonde's eyes softened at hearing such, her right hand almost timidly ascending to the man's face when he went on-

"It would be a shame to see such a nice dress spoiled, regardless of the Mudblood wearing it."

Lylia's hand froze, shook for a moment, and then slapped Elden across the face.

The necromancer cringed visibly at the sting that was only multiplied by the pain of his wounds, but his hold on his carried companion only tightened more securely as he stopped in his tracks. His mind swam not only with the pain but also with the realization of him finally being stood up to. His penetrating eyes stared at the girl's with a fiery indignation, but he met only the same inferno in her own optical orbs. Her now-bloodied hand clenched as she refolded the arm to match her other one, still shaking a little.

"I can walk," she stated stiffly after a few uneasy seconds of unchanged silence.

Elden shook his head with a disreputable grin, his steps continuing once more. Soon they had reached the sick bay, but not before Elden had tried making conversation. "It's simply _glorious_ how much of a mess you can make… I figured that HIS aura must just be overactive when put beside yours, so I'm not surprised that happened, but… YOURS has just begun to bloom. No wonder looking at it sent Trelawney into a coma. I could follow your scent alone to that Tower, you know… I knew since the Ministry installed Aurors that they must suspect a spy here at Hogwarts, but I highly doubt _that_ nutcase is capable of such treachery…"

He stepped back after he had laid her down on a bed, then slid into the unoccupied bed beside her. The Hospital Wing was deserted aside from a colourless, sleeping Karen in the corner furthest from the entrance. Madam Pompfrey herself had already turned in for the night, and neither of the newest occupants felt a need to wake her as they closed the curtains hanging around the beds and changed into the complimentary nightclothes. Lylia's focus strayed to the silhouetted man changing two curtains away; as his form stopped in its motions, she hurriedly went back to dressing.

"Should I draw these curtains for you?" Elden's voice was taunting.

He was coldly given no reply, and he simply shrugged and chuckled as he donned the pyjama shirt in the resuming of his own business.

Kayla located her boyfriend, with Melinda's help, at McGonagall's office door, where she was trying to persuade him out of believing he was a bright green pennywhistle. The negotiations were going nowhere.

"Mr. Malfoy, you are NOT a musical instrument!"

"You're Peter Paaan!"

"DRA?" Kayla hurriedly took ahold of Draco's arms. "Are you alright?"

"Kayla, thank GOD," Draco leaned into her with a befuddled demeanor. "Tell the Professor how she's Peter Pan. Look at the hat!"

McGonagall flushed angrily. Her pointy green hat was quite disgruntled as well.

"Ms. Hartland. Ms. Appleby. As splendid as I find it that you two are no longer trying to claw out each other's eyes, may I ask what you're doing outside of your Slytherin dormitory?"

"Draco will explain everything, I'm sure- right after I fix this charm he's under," Melinda assured the teacher as she drew her wand and waved it. "I'll fix him!" With a bright flash of light, McGonagall was knocked out cold and Draco was given a splitting headache, storming off in quite a hurry. Not wishing to bear added charges to the newest potential one of accidental assault of a teacher, Kayla and Melinda jointly lifted McGonagall's body and trekked nobly to the infirmary, where they laid her down gently in the back, beside Karen. ("Maybe she'll be less angry when she notices someone trying to sleep next to her," Melinda reasoned hopefully. Kayla just stared at her.)

Kayla rushed back on her way to find her elusive beau, the hunt leading her again past the Great Hall, where none remained but Aidon, who waved cheerfully with a fake, black rose in his hand.

"Oi! Hartland!" he beamed. "Great dance, huh? My date went missing early enough for me to finally enjoy the food-" Aidon trailed off as an inhale of the flower's smell made him quite dizzy. Kayla decided to ignore him, and continued on to go nurse Draco's headache in the Slytherin Common Room with some concerned company.

Melinda, however, stayed behind in the Hospital Wing, and she remained there long enough that she caught sight of a most perplexing sight.

Lylia sat at the edge of Elden's bed, using one of a medical kit's rags that healed skin as it cleaned. She had rinsed in a basin of warm water that was poised on the nightstand, and every now and again she dipped a corner of the rag into the water. She dabbed away the blood and rips on Elden's face scratch by scratch, just as indifferent to her surroundings as the Ravenclaw who seemed to be sleeping was. An infinite tenderness marked her hand as she tended to the wounds, not unnoticed by Melinda as the Slytherin silently padded back out.

The witching hour's bitter air was wafted through the curtains of the Hospital Wing and seemed to filter out its chill as it did so. Lylia finished the repair process over the course of the subsequent couple of hours, moving away the rag once she had finished. It was then that Elden opened his eyes and grabbed her hand in unison, making her softly hummed tune abruptly end in her surprise. He didn't let go as she jerked her hand a little, but he didn't tighten his hold either. After he had used his unoccupied hand to set aside her rag, Elden laid her hand gently against his cheek. His eyes held her gaze, for once not mocking or analyzing her within the bottomless, unique orbs. He let go after almost half a minute of tacit gratitude, rolling onto his and facing away from her.

Not yet blinking, Lylia gradually lowered her hand and went back to her own bed for sleep.


	2. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven: Let's see how much confusion can be strapped into THIS chapter!

(Wow, wasn't Chapter Ten weird? And now Chapter Eleven has November, the eleventh month. That's not really astronomically unexpected, but you know… *clears throat* … I'm just gonna leave out these little notes from now on. Most likely. Probably. Maybe.)

Shortly after Lylia had gone to sleep, quiet footfalls stealthed their way to the almost-abandoned Divination Tower and awakened the defeated Zabini. Ignoring his assorted insults and maddened little fits, the 'Dark One' -as Blaise had named his captor- dragged away the confined Slytherin. Elden rose not long afterwards, listening to the incarcerated man's howling from the tower's roof above his prison, not lifting a finger to help or batting an eyelash in care.

The day of November 1st, after the incidents of the Halloween Dance, Lylia awoke to find herself completely alone in the infirmary aside from its nurse. She excused herself from Madam Pompfrey, promising to check in later, and tried her best to resume her usual routine. That is to say, she had soon returned to her books in the Library. Nonetheless, the extreme behaviour of Blaise had sent her reading choice skewed in the direction of the spiritual. She located as many tomes she could find which discussed the nature of a person's aura, and so she immersed herself with the confusing and abstract pieces. As she did so, she scanned fruitlessly for any sort of knowledge about one person's soul or aura somehow provoking another's, the images behind her eyes imitating a reel of film that replayed fragments of memories from the previous night.

Her research was abruptly interrupted as, upon returning an unhelpful stack of the books to their shelves, she caught sight of Blaise curled up under one of the tables, his entire form shaking.

"Blaise?" Lylia dropped her books without a second thought and investigated the odd sight, bringing the tame and injured student out from beneath the table. His wrists were given harsh cuts by someone clumsily cutting the ropes that had held them together. "Blaise," she grew pale from the sight of the blood that was freely dripping onto the carpet. "Who did this to you? Who did this?"

"The Dark One," he shakily answered as his breath hitched raggedly. "The Dark One… I was sealed up…!"

"You need to get some help, Blaise," Lylia jerked her blue-and-white striped scarf off of her neck and hurriedly wrapped the boy's wrists in it as she led him to the infirmary. She didn't make it pellucid as to whether she was referring to his physical or mental health when saying he needed 'help.'

Meanwhile, at breakfast, Kayla and Melinda were jointly doing all they could to avoid Professor McGonagall's steady glare from the Staff Table.

"Do you think she remembers which of us cast the spell?" winced Melinda into a croissant.

Kayla risked a glance up: McGonagall was peering like a hungry hawk at Melinda. "Yeah. I think she remembers."

After Pompfrey provided Lylia with another medical kit so she could take care of Blaise, who refused to be given anyone's care but the blonde's, the kindly school nurse returned to her office for some seclusion in paperwork.

The precarious silence of the healing was shattered when the air near the door grew dark with the gathering of black smoke.

"Pleasant day to be psychotic, isn't it?" came a dry remark as the smoke cleared.

"He's hurt, Lesperance," explained Lylia simply as she turned to stare at Elden.

"I can't believe you're helping this guy!" Elden pointed past her at Blaise. The dark-skinned boy milked every bit of the kindness given to him, pulling an innocent face as he clung lightly to the back of her shirt. Given the security of Lylia's back turned to him, he made a viciously deceitful smile at Elden over her shoulder. Blaise kept his eyes on him as he turned his head enough to take in a deep inhale of the smell of Lylia's blonde hair. The anger that flared up in Elden's eyes gave Blaise an impossible high.

"He's just confused!" Lylia glared solidly in turn without realizing that the necromancer was staring spitefully at the Slytherin behind her, not she herself.

"And now we're defending the lunatic," hissed Elden as he crossed his arms.

"I see she healed your face, Pretty Boy," snapped Blaise at hearing the epithet.

"Yeah- Madam POMPFREY can work wonders," replied Elden. "Look, if those hands of yours are giving you so much trouble, allow me to sever them from you and make everything easier…"

"Clear off," stated Lylia bitterly, her eyes smarting after Elden's refusal to admit her aid. "This doesn't concern you."

The necromancer took a calming breath as if lives depended on his cool nature, exhaling a single, "Fine," before vanishing again.

As soon as Lylia had finished patching up his wrists as best as possible, Blaise tugged his hands away and left a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"For the good of us both… I hope I never see you again," he said and departed without another word.

Lylia stayed in her visitor's seat quietly for some time, a hand on her forehead and her eyes on the still scenery outside the window.

As November paved the path for winter in heavy sheets of rain outside, Lylia was tempted to wander around in the storm but instead selected to remain inside the Library. Blaise's peculiar behaviour in the Hospital Wing only urged on her search, not caring much to ponder the improbability of finding some sort of 'cure' to his peculiar idiosyncrasies.

The days blended smoothly together for her, treating her classes as if they were an unfortunate distraction from her true call. While Lylia was quite content to be a lonely little bookworm, Kayla refused to let her friend fade from all social networks and staged a coup. Gathering her troops that consisted of the recovered Karen, the reluctant Melinda, and the remembering Draco, Kayla led the militia to Lylia's renowned little corner.

"We've called for a girl's night out," declared Karen stoutly.

"Tonight. We're going out," added Melinda with an obstinate tone.

"Why am I present for this?" asked Draco quietly to himself.

Lylia gave a bold attempt at holding her power. "Well, I _have_ been looking without results, but there are so many more shelves-"

"Exactly." Kayla pointed. "You need this break before cracking down again."

"Or cracking apart," mumbled Melinda as she looked around at the virtual labyrinth of library media in which Lylia had immersed herself.

And so, that evening the quartet of girls snuck out of the castle and took a nighttime express to Hogsmeade.

"Where are we going again?" Lylia tugged her turtleneck's collar closer around her neck as she shivered in the cold air.

"I know just the place we wanna be tonight," said Karen while she grinned and toyed with the ends of her ever-present Gryffindor scarf around her neck. Waving a hand, she strode off confidently into the somewhat-disconcerting night life of the wizarding world. "Follow me!"

Melinda gave a wide smile and opened the door to their destination for the others, bowing mockingly. The interior of the pub was dark and smoky, making Lylia cough and Karen beam mischievously.

"The Hog's Head," the carroty-haired girl announced graciously as they made their unhurried way to an empty, dirty table. "Man, I missed this place."

"Why are we here?" wheezed the blonde into a hand, her eyes watering once she began trying to peer through the haze.

"It's the best place to be unwatched and unrestrained," sighed Melinda as she sat across from Lylia and Kayla. Before Lylia could pose another question, Karen made a quick clarification:

"All races are welcome here, especially at night, Lylia. No one's trying to pry questions from you like those Aurors, or trying to hammer useless knowledge into your brain like those books."

A peculiarly scaled waitress approached and asked of them their order.

"One tall Firewhiskey," grinned Karen.

"I like the sound of that," agreed Melinda.

"I'll try maybe just a little of the Dwarven Stout," Kayla smiled politely.

"Water." Lylia lowered her gaze from the reptilian eyes of the waitress and tried to rescan the pub around them, her eyes now adjusted to the murky light. Three hulking forms huddled on stools along the bar, their cloaks almost comically too small for them. A lone figure hooded in black velvet sat on their own at the bar's other side, but more half-hidden figures also lounged in booths and at tables around them. A pair of spectacle-wearing half-trolls sat docilely and played chess by the door to the kitchen. Lylia blinked.

Soon after their drinks had arrived, Lylia nudged aside her untouched –and rather dirty- glass of water. "I'm heading to the bathroom for a breather from this breather…" As the Ravenclaw stood and weaved between tables to slip past the door of the unisex bathroom in the building's posterior, Kayla noticed the velvet-wearing patron stand and trail along behind her:

"Bad news, guys. Lylia's Stalker Pheromones are now affecting Hogsmeade, not just Hogwarts."

Melinda looked over her Firewhiskey at the figure, nodding. "Someone's wearing velvet in _this_ place? _Can't_ be good. Let's get to it."

The trio hurried as subtly as possible to the bathroom door, Kayla foremost and Karen pulling up the rear with her Firewhiskey in tow. Grabbing Karen's drained glass from her, Kayla placed it against the wood and put her ear to its other end, listening carefully. She heard a female voice, most likely Lylia's, give a yelp, and then a male voice muttering something too quiet for Kayla to pick up.

Not waiting for any sign beyond the short sound of her friend's distress, Kayla jerked out her wand and quite neatly waved the door down from its hinges with the force of her Alohomora spell.

Melinda cocked her head to the side as she and Karen stared down the two against the bathroom wall. Elden, his hood lowered, had one hand over Lylia's mouth to silence her and was drawing his head back from where he had been muttering into her ear. His other hand was on the wall above Lylia's head, keeping her wand hand pinned. He looked briefly between the three new visitors.

"Good evening," was his eventual, hesitant greeting.

"What the HELL do you think you're doing?" Kayla waved her wand half-threateningly and half-amazedly.

"Impossible to get a girl alone these days," sighed Elden as he released his hold on Lylia, giving a step back and holding his hands up in a show of virtuousness.

"You really wanna explain this one," Melinda glanced between Elden, Lylia, and Kayla with a wary eye.

"Well, what do you _think_ I was doing?"

"You had her pinned against a wall in a bathroom!" replied Kayla, her suspicions not at all soothed.

"I would have done nothing to compromise her honor," came a growl in response. "I was simply giving her advice on her… research."

"Izzat what they're callin' it theshe days?" threw in a tipsy Karen who had been playing with the splinters of the ruined door.

"I can't believe you would do something so reckless," huffed Kayla over her shoulder at the necromancer as she grabbed Lylia's hand and drew her to the other girls.

"Says the one who broke down a door," retorted Elden coolly as he leaned back against the wall, waving teasingly as the females departed.

"Sho, what did 'e tell you?" gossiped Karen slurredly as they returned to their table.

Lylia swallowed a mouthful of the dirty water at her seat, barely recognizing it. "Nothing, nothing. He lied." While part of her was still alarmed at how much Elden had always seemed to know about her daily activities, the majority of her attention was focused on memorizing a single sentence the man had said close to her ear: _'Look in the Restricted section for aura manipulation spells: there's a spell in there that will let you hide your aura.'_

As a break from her own routine of classes, Kayla was one day summoned by McGonagall away from breakfast and out to the courtyard. She tugged Lylia away from lunch to tell her all about it, going to the same courtyard as they talked.

"It was great! This spell is incredible," Kayla breathed excitedly. "You, like, embody inanimate objects with life!"

"Technically, doesn't that make them stop being inanimate?" asked Lylia as she flicked her wand in little circles, her brow furrowed in concentration.

"It's called 'Vivus Vitavi,'" explained the Slytherin as she pointed at an empty pillar a few feet tall. "There was a little dragon statue RIGHT on that pedestal, but I had it fly away!"

"Pretty cool," conceded Lylia with a good-natured smile.

"So, what're you up to?" Kayla nodded at Lylia's wand. The blonde stopped, looked at her hand, then smiled a tad embarrassedly.

"Oh, this… I haven't found anything yet about hiding my aura, as far as spells go, but I did find this interesting one that apparently…" She trailed off, trying to gather her thoughts. She soon started over completely. "There are some spells, it seems, that are personally tied to the people that cast them. They're connected to the caster's soul, one could say. The Patronus Charm is one like this, and probably… definitely the most well-known. The charm takes a form that matches its user. The spell that I found is a lot like that one, except it goes a bit deeper."

"What're you talking about?" laughed Kayla a little as she watched, baffled.

The blonde kept flicking her wand determinedly in small circles as she went on. "You have to think of happy memories to conjure the Patronus, right? Well, with this spell you have to concentrate on your most important, influential memory- best, worst, both, or neither."

"How can someone's worst memory be their most important one?"

"Well, do _you_ ever forget the worst memories of your life?" Lylia replied.

This inquiry silenced Kayla for a second.

"I take it that it hasn't been going well?" she prompted after watching as tiny golden puffs of powder emitted from Lylia's wand at every failed attempt.

"I just… don't have any sort of life-changing, single memory, apparently." Lylia sighed as she pocketed her wand. "How can that be, after all of this?"

Kayla smiled quietly. "Things'll get better. They have to, don't they?"

"I wish I knew how things are _right now_, Kayla. I could be happy with that…"


	3. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve: Something Shiny This Way Comes.

Lylia left the comforts of the Library with her single located spell, drawn out by promise of December snow. It came as if on cue, falling down in gentle, white sheets at the start of the year's final month. Many other students found their release from November's rain in December's precipitation, but few wandered from the commodity of the courtyards and scenic, open bridges that dotted the castle. On the third of December, Lylia paused amid her enjoyment of some hot cocoa at breakfast to give her attention to McGonagall, as did the rest of the student body around her.

"Oh, goodie," breathed Melinda. "Time for more guests. I should've known it'd be around now. Yule Ball's already so close…"

"We have Yule Ball this year?" Kayla's eyes widened. "I thought that was part of the Triwizard Tournament, though!"

"We recently started having one every year," Draco explained in a hushed tone. "The students really enjoy it, and it seems to really help their behaviour in wintertime, which makes us Prefects' jobs easier."

"In addition to our… lovely guests from the Ministry of Magic," Professor McGonagall was explaining, "We shall now be playing host to another _school's_ selection of bright and eager students."

"Nyx is still a black snake, right, Kayla?" Lylia asked as a thought passed her mind.

"Yeah. King cobras aren't very commonly known for changing colours," answered Kayla with a tint of sarcasm.

"Just checking. I think you guys were right about me spending too much time in the Library- I'm starting to see green snakes around the school…"

"Could it be another student's?" Kayla frowned.

"I doubt any of the others let their snakes roam freely like Nyx," Draco threw in a thought.

"Could we listen to the Headmistress and Ruler of Our Souls, please?" Melinda shushed them as McGonagall went on.

"So I'd like us all to give a nice, warm welcome to the lovely boys of Domus Aurea!"

The doors smoothly opened, giving admittance to two long rows of platinum blonde boys with bright pink eyes. Whispers went up like a heralding chorus as they strode along between the seated students and began to wordlessly filter out into empty seats.

"Do they bleach those robes?" Draco raised a critical eyebrow as he noted their flawless white attire.

"They're just radiating that positive, light magic they use," sighed Karen with a giddy grin. "Look at how gorgeous they are!"

"I bet they're all airheads," muttered Kayla.

Lylia said nothing, her expression forcedly blank as she stared down her goblet of water instead of talking to the two blondies now flanking her. She wondered if that's what Hell is like.

As breakfast ended, Kayla nudged Draco, Melinda, and Karen in that respective order.

"Guys," she grinned. "These guys are in the school now, right?"

"Yeah. So?" Melinda folded her arms with a peering gaze.

"So, they must be sleeping on their own quarters somewhere."

Now Karen grinned. "Sweet!"

"Let's do a little sightseein'," said Kayla as she hopped up and slipped with her company out of the hall. The exploring crew made its way outside and down the trail that led from the gates to the castle. They found a line of elegant, horse-drawn carriages out by the gates. Leaving Draco as a guard by the foremost carriage, Kayla led the way into one of the ornate vehicles once it was found to be unlocked.

The interiors seemed to be far larger than the exteriors, lined like an expensive coach car on a train. The fine seats were matched by fine fridges and other machinery that somehow all worked in a non-electric mode of transportation.

"This place is ostentatious and very pretty," sighed Melinda. "It reminds me too much of Elden. Can we leave?"

"I'm glad we haven't seen Elden the past couple of weeks," grumbled Kayla as she scribbled 'Shiny!' on a Sticky Note and left it on the door of the carriage as they left, hoping it would mess with the students' heads.

Lylia snuck her way out of the Hall and away from the new boys of Domus Aurea as the breakfast attendees started to spread out in location, and she then proceeded to stroll in silence outside, along the borders of the castle's main, hulking form. The snow was just as taciturn as she was, offering her neither criticism nor advice. That's always a nice quality to find in precipitation.

Not far from the boundaries of the lake, Lylia heard a commotion going up close to the Forbidden Forest. There was a circle of the new white-robed students laughing and giving each other playful nudges. Lylia could catch glimpses here and there, between the gaps of their robes, of a large black mass on the snow in the middle of their ring. Wand drawn without a second thought, she bolted out across the abdicant snow and toward the ridiculing group.

"Hey! Get away!" she shouted.

"Why should we?" demanded one, more for the sake of mocking than anything else.

"Yeah!" added in another. "Leave us to our game. This creature's too pitiful to even stand up to us!"

"I said get _AWAY_!" yelled Lylia as she shoved her way past the two of them.

Melinda frowned as they reentered the castle from the carriage excursion, sliding the enchanted ring off of her finger. "Karen, did you send me a message just now?"

"No, I never got that ring back," sighed the redhead as she ran a hand on the brick wall they were walking along, casting an eye on her bare fingers.

"Whoever has it just sent me a message," Melinda went on, reading the aforementioned transmission: 'Fight outside. Black Lake.' "… We need to get the guards."

"Get them back? Yeah, I know- total jerks. They deserve a good lesson."

"NO, Karen! I think Letum's gone and made another disaster- this time by the Black Lake!" Melinda was already rushing to the nearest Auror, Kayla charging ahead.

As soon as one camouflaged man had been warned of the threat, it seemed that every one of their units knew. The ones closest to the Grounds location of the Black Lake began to trot out onto the Grounds and tear off for the cluster of students. Even as they neared with the troops, Kayla and the others could see red and purple jets of light flashing in jets and beams across the new fighting ground. Draco dragged her down to keep one red light from hitting her, not even trying to yell over the chaos of curses and hexes and magic and battle. Lylia looked up from where she was laying a few feet away, crouched low over the black mound of cloth she had started the fight to protect. Her wand was poised over her head, a small dome of blue light radiating down from it and covering her.

"I'm so sorry you guys got pulled into this," Lylia managed to yell over the din. "But I'm also very glad you brought these Auror guys!"

Kayla looked around at the fighting. "Why are they all so violent? They're trying to rip each other apart!"

"It's a long time of a tense line they have," yelled Lylia in turn. "From what I unfortunately couldn't tune out at breakfast, it seems that their school – that Latin name – is a really privileged and distinguished one! The Ministry doesn't like their private funding, and the Domus guys don't like how 'lax' Hogwarts has become with its academics!"

"But that's nonsense!" Kayla tried to reason. "Hogwarts isn't slacking off at all with it!"

"They have money, so they think they're correct, but the Ministry agrees with you, Kayla!" Draco threw in. "My father mentioned these guys before! He said-"

"Maybe the best place to discuss a battle's politics is _not_ when we're under its heavy fire!" Lylia interrupted, her wand hand beginning to shake overhead. "Look, Draco- you get Kayla out of here, and make sure Melinda looks after Karen as you do! I'll meet up with you guys later; we can't be in too big of a group, or we'll make conspicuous targets!"

"For which side?" hollered Melinda as she began pushing a wand-waving Karen back toward Hogwarts Castle.

"BOTH sides!" retorted Lylia with a cringe.

Thankfully, neither of the retreating pairs was hit by stray spells, and the four safely reached the safety of the building. The Domus Aurea 'Shinies' made their own retreat within the next couple of minutes, while the Aurors pursued without a second glance for the Ravenclaw holding up a shield charm. As the chaos slowly dimmed and faded away, Lylia lowered her wand weakly and shook her exhausted hand out.

"Lesperance," she addressed the man lying prone beneath her. At getting no answer, she labouredly rolled Elden over and shook his shoulders. "Lesperance!"

"I'm awake, I'm awake," he rasped as he coughed a couple times, sitting himself up. Lylia grabbed his hand and assisted him in standing, but as soon as he was again on his feet Elden stopped. He kept his absent-minded grip on Lylia's hand, waiting for her to give a half-hearted, confused tug at her snagged limb. Once she had, Elden lifted her hand and pressed it gently against his cheek, holding her astonished gaze. And with that, he vanished in black, frosty mist.

Later that day, once the shades of night had fallen, Lylia sat on the Common Room's Victorian loveseat and eyed the still serenity of the lunar hours beyond the opposing window panes. Her gaze was absent; she was reminiscent. Suddenly, a man clothed in equal darkness was sitting beside her, one arm leisurely on the back of the seat and behind her shoulders. He gave a familiar smirk.

"Thinking of someone?"

"Yes, actually," the blonde smiled as she remorselessly lied. "Blaise Zabini."

Giving an outraged growl, the necromancer disappeared yet again.

Lylia just chuckled softly, twirling her fingertips between wafting strands of the smoke.


	4. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen: Yule be Sick of These Jokes by the End

Around mid-December, the ever-anticipated Yule Ball grew terribly close. The morning of its sacred day, Karen swore on every ginger strand of hair on her head that she could smell the awkward teenage tension in the air. Melinda tried saying that was just that morning's toast, but Karen refused to be swayed from her belief. Aidon was devouring said toast anyway, so the chances of the fumes being ABLE to reach anyone else were slim.

"Why do you _eat _so much?" Draco grimaced as he pitied the poor toast.

"I have to," Aidon whimpered as he finished off his plate. "I do it when I'm stressed. And I'm _very_ stressed right now. You wouldn't understand what it's like, being… in love."

Draco was too busy dying of laughter to ask any more questions.

"Speaking of love," smirked Karen at Draco and Kayla. "Aren't you two going to…?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "… Kayla."

"Yes?"

"Would you like to go to the Yule Ball with me?"

"Yes."

"Alright."

"NO!" wailed Karen as all her plots to see some romance epically crashed and burned. "You two didn't DO it right…"

"Well, who are _you_ taking?" Melinda raised an eyebrow at her.

"I'm going to get me one of those Shiny guys," grinned Karen widely as she nodded at their cluster. The murderous gazes they were sharing with the Aurors at their posts around the Hall did not seem to deter Karen's mood or endeavor in the slightest. "Just watch. I'll have one of them by lunch."

"Hey. Where's Lylia?" Kayla gave Melinda a nudge in the side and made her squirm a bit from the unexpected contact.

"How should_ I_ know?" grumbled Melinda as she rubbed her now-sore side. "I'm sure she's fine, wherever she ran off to."

Lylia was, in truth, simply on another snow-accompanied stroll around the Grounds. At her side, however, was Elden.

"So we can both agree, then," he said. "You owe me a favour still."

"I don't agree, actually," she was grinning despite her somber tone. "I saved you from the Shinies."

"_Must_ you call them that? And I wasn't technically in need of saving."

"Lesperance. You were face-down in the snow."

"Even so, that only cancels out one favour. Which would be me saving you from the Aurors. Fair trade, correct? That still leaves the favour in which I saved you from Zany Zabini."

"Must you call _him_ that? And technically…" Lylia trailed off, realizing herself caught. "Well, I… I, uhm…"

"See?" the necromancer grinned, stopping as she did as well in the snow. "You still owe me a favour."

"Not true!" An idea occurred to Lylia. "I healed your face afterwards- WHICH you later denied."

"That entire scenario does _not_ count," Elden made a face at the recollection: "Let us not forget why I did; you were healing the lunatic's wrists. That negates the help you gave me."

"Alright, so let's pretend I _do_ owe you a favour." Lylia crossed her arms. "What do you want?"

"Are you sure you can go through with it?" Elden was smirking again. Oh, how that smirk got under Lylia's skin.

"Bring it on. I'll be fine."

"You are NOT going to be fine," Lylia said to herself in the mirror after splashing herself in the face three times. "But you are GOING to go through with this.

"Don't be ridiculous," her reflection disagreed with her. "This whole situation is completely laughable.

"And completely HAPPENING right now." The real Lylia settled her dispute with herself. "Now shut up, wash up, and go do something brainless."

That is how Lylia Letum came to be playing in the snow again, shortly after lunchtime. Her antics resembled that of a small child: here she rolled around for no apparent reason, there she made a little snowman, and here again she built a small fort.

Blaise watched her silently from the shadows of an alcove she was playing by, his eyes trained with calmness on the stress-relieving girl. His smile was soft, sane, and serene.

Kayla herself was playing as well after lunch, enjoying a snowball fight with Karen and Draco.

"So, how'd it go?" asked Kayla as she looked over her snow wall and chucked a ball of frozen crystals at Karen. A direct hit.

"How'd what go?" asked Karen in turn as she spat out snow and wiped her eyes with a hand's knuckles. "You mean getting a date?"

"Yeah," agreed Draco as he took a hit at Kayla over his own wall. A clip on the shoulder.

"Yep! I got myself a Shiny," beamed Karen. She and Kayla then struck in unison, both hitting Draco in the face. "Win!" Crimson drops fell to the snow around her as she punched the air, making Kayla gasp.

"Karen, you're bleeding!"

"O-oh, that?" The redhead giggled nervously as she stood up, readjusting her clothes. "My arm just has a scab. I must've torn it with all this playing or something. I'll take care of it before the Ball tonight."

That night the Great Hall's floor shimmered like the elegant bridge of Bifrost that connected the earth to the heavens in ancient Norse mythology, a cascade of silver released with every gentle facet beneath crystal. The tables were again circular and small, but now their ornate, white, and curving forms orbited the dance area at an inching yet gliding pace, chairs moving as well with them as if they were partners in a dance. From the illuminated clouds above fell snowflakes that shined like silver fireflies, drifting lazily down. In one corner stood a decorated pine tree, an ornament on it from each teacher and, if they wished to charm them up themselves, students.

Crystalline goblets from which the students (of age) drank were filled with wine and eggnog, while a long stretch of the same Great Hall tables as always were piled high with Christmas treats and sweets. Petit fours, bonbons, ice mice, etc. dotted it. It was there that Aidon sat and munched on the iced cookies, beginning their great massacre. A live band played off to one side, striking of a delicate waltz once the Ball officially began. As they did so, an ice sculpture of a satyr playing panpipes and of a nymph pouring out a pitcher, back-to-back, sprang to life. The nymph poured frozen water into the fountain's base; the satyr danced it in rivulets back up into the panpipes.

Wearing a neon orange dress and scarf that somehow worked well with her hair, Karen was there with her acquired Shiny, who was puzzling over a Sticky Note held in his free hand. Although Aidon, Melinda's press-ganged date, was feasting instead of dancing, she still danced in a soft yellow dress that made Draco's friends beside Aidon all giggle. Badly-matched colours amused them greatly. Kayla had chosen a rich red dress for the occasion, while Draco himself stuck to the green. It was kind of like a comfort zone, preventing a mishap like Aidon's Hogsmeade suit from ever happening again.

A pair appeared, in opposite hues to each other, and stepped slowly, together, into the Hall. The male wore a spotless white suit instead of the usual dress robes of the dance, and the female wore a black dress filled, not unlike a blue and white one she wore, with lace and ruffles. He kept his left hand raised on which her right one rested, his eyes fixed on her with an irking confidence as her own eyes stayed only on the dance floor ahead of them.

Karen gaped and grabbed Melinda's shoulder, and Melinda stared in bewilderment as she tapped Kayla when the latter passed by. Kayla's eyes widened considerably as well. What she saw was the impossible sight of Elden leading Lylia to dance.

"Oh, my…"

Aidon, on the other hand, just paused fleetingly in his munching. "Hrmph?"

Lylia seemed just about to greet Kayla, but a jerk from Elden's poised hand yanked her into the next song's dance with him. Quite displeased by this, Lylia glared at the necromancer as the dance brought her close to him through a measured twirl inward. He just nodded his head a little in acknowledgment of her rage, his grin diabolical. Kayla just watched and grinned roguishly, murmuring to Draco:

"The sexual tension between those two if so thick you could cut it with a knife."

"I'd hate to miss the show when it gets to the snapping point," agreed the Malfoy as he leaned back against the table of the ice sculpture.

Once the dance had ended, Elden led the somewhat-calmed Lylia over to one of the revolving tables and sat down beside her unhurriedly.

"Quite a chess game, hmm?" grinned Draco as Kayla brought him off to try and force Aidon to dance with someone - _anyone_.

Within seconds, Lylia was standing again and standing in front of Elden. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" asked Elden reluctantly as he raised his eyebrows.

"To dance, Lesperance." Lylia sighed as though the answer was obvious… even though it never _was_ with her.

"Why again?" sighed the fourth-year once he had stood up.

"I've never slow-danced before," the girl laughed softly, leading him this time over to the dance floor. He took her waist as she took his hand, and so the leisurely dance began.

"What do you do when you're not in the Library?" Elden's eyes stayed on the girl, whose own blue eyes were staring down at her feet to not mess up in steps.

"Not dancing," she gave a short, anxious laugh. "I'll show you later. What do you do outside of your classes?"

"I practice magic on the dead." At Lylia's shudder of answer, the male wizard tightened his hold a minuscule amount in his grin. "I AM a necromancer, you know. The scent of decay… is a delicate perfume of sweet despair and the darkest of dreams."

The pair spun in accordance to the music, allowing Elden to lower his head and brush his nose's tip lightly against the skin of Lylia's neck, inhaling her scent. "For you to bear it so naturally…"

"Is this a compliment?" Lylia shuddered.

"Simply how things are, Death."

After most of the partygoers had departed for sleep, Melinda went back over to Draco and Kayla.

"It's a shame Aidon refused to dance," she sighed to them.

Draco cast Kayla a reassuring glance before smiling and bowing regally to Melinda. "It would be of my greatest honour to give you a dance." With many a flourish and flutter, he led her to the dance floor. Kayla had the same quiet smile on her face when Blaise settled next to her, looking like he hadn't eaten or bathed in days.

"Zabini? What the hell?"

"She's killing me. Not even looking at me and I'm dying without her." His eyes, somehow hollow and manic at once, stared into her soul before he ran off just as subtly as he had arrived.

Lylia tugged Elden into the Room of Requirement behind her, guiding him by the wrist to the Mirror of Erised in the center of its empty cavern. She jerked off its tarp with a smile after she let go of him, and she stepped back to let him gaze into it.

His face turned ashen.

"Lesperance…?"

"What do you see in this mirror?" His demand was shaken.

"… What?"

"What do _you_ see in it?" Elden didn't yet look away in his wonder.

"I-I see Talem," she stammered her response. "Being with Talem…"

A long number of minutes passed, the necromancer's gaze engrossed in whatever the Mirror of Erised was showing him. "… Of course… Why didn't I see it sooner…?"

He turned and stared at her unseeingly before striding past and out of the room without another word.


	5. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen: insert witty chapter title here

The day of students' travel home for Christmas holidays, Elden tracked down Kayla, where she was practicing her Vivus Vitavi spell on hapless little bits of rock to see if it'd work.

"Where's Letum?"

Kayla took a hiatus in the flicks and waves. "Uh… It's lunchtime, so she's… probably at lunch?"

Elden was staring at the clouds as he was explained the obvious. "… Right."

"You alright?" The Slytherin took a small step away from the necromancer. Blaise was a fine example of how people who met Lylia kinda lost it; she was hoping Elden wasn't the newest piece of evidence to that tendency.

"She had me look into the Mirror of Erised…"

Kayla blanched, recalling her own incident with the Mirror. "What did you see?"

"In the past… I would have seen more beauty, more fame, more power…"

"And now?" Kayla took another small step back, even more hesitant.

Elden seemed to return to being himself, shrugging and answering condescendingly. "I'd be going soft if I were to give something like_ that_ away. Are you going to see your friends off before they leave?"

"I guess so," answered Kayla as she looked around for an indication of how the change of topic was relevant. Her surroundings gave no answer. "Why?"

The necromancer didn't make his say at first, and he instead began heading back inside. "The carriages are arriving. I can feel the thestrals. Time for students to go home for the holidays."

Kayla trotted along behind as it dawned on her that Elden had no intentions of waiting for her. "Oh, yeah! Uh, nice talent. With the thestrals."

"Could make them kill themselves, if I wanted it so…"

This remark made the first-year pale with a soft, "Oh…"

Kayla and Elden met up with Lylia and the others, as expected, at the Ravenclaw table for lunch. Melinda stood shortly after its end and hugged Karen, giving all the others (except for Elden…) a handshake before leaving. Karen pretty much hugged everyone (except for Elden…) and giggled and gossiped before running to Professor Lestoat's side, leaving with his arm around her shoulders.

Elden neared Lylia after the two of their group had gone away, clearing his throat. "Letum. Your weeks spent in the Library and time spent practicing that one spell have come to my attention."

"Uhm… Okay?" The blonde grinned and looked between Kayla and Elden, expecting some kind of joke.

"I lied."

"… Beg pardon?" Lylia gave a small, expectant laugh this time.

"There's no spell that will hide your aura. I lied."

Lylia's smile vanished entirely. "… You lied to me."

Kayla chose this opportunity to take a step away from Lylia, her eyes widening. It was a wise move, because that next second was used by Lylia to aim a good punch at Elden's face. The man, chary toward her reaction, caught her arm and twisted it around behind her back with sad ease, his free arm looping around her waist and keeping the infuriated girl pinned to him.

"You LIED to me!" Her shouts were escalating in volume. A couple passerbies were stopping to watch. Kayla was getting increasingly nervous about repercussions for creating a scene.

"Would you have searched otherwise?" Elden asked as calmly as ever.

"WEEKS spent for NOTHING!"

"For _everything_, Letum. You found everything you needed, in the end."

The blonde gave a furious twist. She had clearly not given up on the savoured idea of slugging Elden in the face. "Like HELL!"

"Let her go, Lesperance…" Kayla was glancing around with anxiety. It was like a kid throwing a fit in a grocery store... for being misled in research for months.

"Gladly." Elden released her without a fuss, letting her fall. She put her hands on the back of her neck as she landed on her elbows and knees, and she refused to stand to face him again.

"It wouldn't do you any good anyway," sighed the necromancer as he watched the girl having a meltdown. "You'd give yourself away the second you got all steamed up like this."

"I don't want any sort of strength," Lylia gave in a muffled answer. "I just want… freedom…"

"Then you better get the strength to fight for it." The fourth year stared at her defeated shape and faded away into wisps of smoke. Kayla irritatedly waved away suspended streams of the haze as she crouched by Lylia, placing a caring hand on her back.

"I'm okay," breathed Lylia shakily once she stood up once more. "I'm okay…"

The blonde Ravenclaw kept to herself as she meandered down one of the school's numerous halls later that day, but company had a way of finding her instead this time. Blaise came dashing down the hall in his joy of a pleasant mania, stopping less than a foot in front of her.

"… Lylia."

Breathless for an instant at the scare of the boy's appearance, Lylia shivered. "Hi, Blaise-"

The boy stopped listening at that point. He jerked from an invisible stimulus, hands clutching themselves as he gazed in shock over Lylia's shoulder. "Lookout! Lookout!"

His company looked over her shoulder with a good deal of fright, but she calmed when she saw nothing there. "Blaise…?"

"Can't you see it? It's terrible!" The boy charged off down the hall the way he came, prompting Lylia to chase him down with greatest speed.

She shook a bit in bewildered fear at his paroxysm, but she nonetheless took hold of his shoulders and guided him to the Room of Requirement as an idea occurred to her. Along the way, she tried to be as comforting as possible. "It's alright, Blaise. Everything's alright. It's okay. Honest."

In front of the Mirror of Erised, she smiled, looking between him and his reflection. "See, Blaise…? You're alone, right…? In the glass…"

The dark-skinned boy finally looked into the bewitching image and became rapt with what he saw. The apparition that had spooked him before was no longer there. There was just him, standing alone. "I… I'm happy," he said delicately. "I'm all alone. They're all gone. All the voices, all the things… They're gone."

Blaise was taken by Lylia to sit with her in the Great Hall for dinner that evening. Kayla was a bit baffled but made small chat anyway, while Draco just stuck to keeping Aidon from assaulting anyone for their food; he doubted the Aurors would take that excuse for violence lightly ("Not that they're much better."). Blaise ate a hefty amount of victuals himself, and when prompted as to why, he gave once sentence:

"I can't quite remember the last time I ate."

When dinner ended, Kayla recalled that previous mealtime's troubles and offered to take Blaise to their Common Room so that Lylia could go rest. A scrounging Aidon was too busy gathering leftover desserts to escort Lylia herself to their Tower, so Lylia decided to escort herself. While strolling past one of the numerous stained-glass windows located around the dining area, the blonde was assailed by a shot of red light and a cry of, 'Diffindo!'

Having heard the glass behind her shatter in a rebound of the spell that clipped her side, Lylia felt herself falling back as if in slow-motion. Her sweeping eyesight roved to find her attacker and saw only the fleeing form of white robes. A hand snatched hers before she could tumble her way out of the window, its possessor jerking her away from the window as it fell away. In what seemed like blips of existence to the girl, Elden had led her to the Hospital Wing and sat her down on one of the beds.

"That doesn't make sense," she mumbled as Elden wetted a healing rag from one of an ever-useful medical kit. Her elder classmate tried his best to listen while lifting the side of her shirt and examining the slit in her side's skin.

"What? You expected those Aurea boys to be happy after what you did to help me?"

"No…" Lylia's shock was wearing off _quite _quickly under the pain of feeling a glass shard tugged out of her torso. Aforesaid tug was thereby followed with a shrill whine of pain.

Elden made a face, but whether it was from disgust at her weakness or repulsion for his own brutality is uncertain. In either case, he paused and just dabbed at her tender flesh with the soaked healing rag. "Then what is it?"

"It doesn't make sense that you did this for me," Lylia panted out at the hot agony, trying to twist away from the rag. "The Yule Ball made us even…"

Elden was again distracted from listening to her, this time because he was trying to loop his unoccupied arm around her exposed midriff and keep her stationary for the healing. A growl escaped. "Look, either stop talking or stop _squirming_, you impossibly defiant girl…"

He received the second of the requests. "But, Lesperance…"

"I do these 'favours,' as we've come to call them, because I must."

"You're not making sense, Lesperance."

Elden took a calming breath, resuming the dabbing and wiping of the rag on her fair skin. "You're the one being nonsensical. Does it honestly not make sense to you that I'd do something simply for the sake of another being?"

Lylia looked up and away from him, as if out of shame. "I just don't see why you would, for me, when you have the option of otherwise benefitting."

To her Elden just sighed lightly, setting aside the rag once her wound had been mended and had vanished. "Tell you what… Meet me outside tomorrow morning, right after breakfast, and go on a walk with me. I'll consider that repayment of this 'favour.'"

"Alright… Thank you, Lesperance."

"If I'm just making us 'even' again, why are you thanking me?"

Lylia locked eyes with him, her expression soft enough to make him lower his arm from around her waist and slide away. "Because I know you're really not…"

Elden surprisingly pulled no tricks the next morning, actually showing up on-time to go on his pre-designated walk. Lylia located him just outside Hogwarts' main entrance and gave him a guarded smile.

"Hey there, uh, Lesperance."

"What's with the stiff demeanor?" The necromancer seemed almost just as distrustful. After the life-risking stunts performed the past four months, an everyday walk through the snow seemed to be anything _but_.

"Stiff? Heh. Who's stiff? I'm not stiff. Nooo." Lylia tried to lean on a wall, missed, and almost slid off her feet. "Shall we get walking?"

"We probably should," Elden answered sarcastically as he began off across the expanse of softly-falling snow. "Urgent business and whatnot, walking is."

Their communication stopped for some time as they left two pairs of footprints stretching slowly around the school, but Elden spoke up once they had almost reached the lake:

"I'll be leaving."

"Uh, sorry?"

"I'm answering my mother's call and returning home."

Lylia looked confused, then realized it must be his human side of the family that was summoning him. Not that such an idea made much more sense- she'd never heard of a fully-male Veela. "I… see…"

"Does this perturb you?" asked Elden as he read her puzzled expression, stopping his walking under the shelter of a dead tree lining the icy lake.

Lylia blinked, but then she smiled faintly. "No- but the dark corners here will miss you very much."

The black-haired student smirked as usual, shifting aside his focus to the waters. "Yeah… I'll miss you too."

His companion didn't make any move to correct him. "When will you be back…?"

He was silent for a while. Then, "As soon as I can be."

"And that goal of yours?"

"What of it?" Elden risked a glance at her and found her still watching him.

"Have you given up on becoming 'worthy' or whatever you deem it to be? OR, have you learned _when_ you will be?" Lylia smirked a little herself as she caught his eyes and held them fast. Her confidence evaporated fully when Elden faced her and took her hand, her heartbeat turning sporadic as he pressed her palm against his cheek.

"I've concluded much about myself this year, whether I like it or not," Elden said to her with an odd tenderness. "One conclusion is that I'd very much like to be worthy of you. That is my purpose."

Lylia tried to lower her hand in thinking his words were a jest, but he held her limb fast against him, his eyes showing no humor. "Stop joking, Lesperance. Really. Don't."

Serious, Elden shook his head and brought her hand down from his face only to hold it gently in his own two hands. As his indigo eyes focused on the hand, he went on. "I don't do favours for the sake of favours, Lylia…"

The blonde's objections stopped at hearing her first name, and her eyes found themselves trapped in his gentle ones. "… So, you…?"

His gaze was torn away by the sound of a distant bell on the castle, his eyes attempting in vain to locate from which bell tower the ringing was reverberating. As he looked at Lylia again, his own confidence seemed shot, unsteady. "I don't have time. I can't find the words. I… I mean, I…"

"Elden…?"

Taking hold of Lylia's shoulders, Elden finally managed to get out a single, pained sentence. "I feel this way, and I always have, and I can't _bear_ it like this." He leaned his head down and let his black bangs obscure his sight; Elden laid on her lips a soft, loving kiss. Lylia didn't dare to move, shocked and found off-guard.

The necromancer breathed hotly onto her lips as he withdrew an inch, his eyes peering between his bangs with a grin. "You're divine…" He spent an instant more in the silent, intrepid connection he had created through a final severing of their spiteful distance, and then he released her. He turned away and began to retrace his steps for the front of the school, saying to the still-stunned girl, "And I _do_ believe that's the first time you used my first name…"

Kayla came across Lylia as the latter was lying on top of one of the Great Hall tables. She stared for a moment, pondering why the Ravenclaw was doing so.

"Lyl?"

"Hmmm?" The blonde was staring quite interestedly at the ceiling.

"Are you… okay?" Kayla tried to find something enthralling about the clouds above, but it was just the same enchanted ceiling as ever.

"Yeah… I'm super…"

"Did you take any strange potions this morning?"

"Nope," Lylia replied distantly and sat up with tousled hair. "I went on a walk with Elden."

Kayla sharply looked at her friend. "What did he do?"

"Hmmm?"

"You just called him 'Elden…'" Kayla suddenly smiled mischievously. "Ohh. So he _did_ something, alright."

"Nah," Lylia ruffled her hair a bit, eyes still glazed. "It was just my first kiss…"

Kayla's eyes widened. "… He did what?"

Draco slid next to them. "Lesperance drugged her?"

"No, Elden didn't!"

Now it was the _male _Slytherin's turn to gawk. "She just…"

"They kissed," Kayla reported.

Lylia stopped paying attention to them, just lying back again on the table with a smile.

Christmas was as welcome as it had always been at Hogwarts, awash in the excitement of pent-up teenagers and young adults with extreme sugar highs and exploding bonbons.

"HAYNES! HAYNES!"

Aidon groaned and rolled over onto his side, away from the sunlight filtering in through one of the Ravenclaw Tower's numerous windows. "What…?"

"IT'S CHRISTMAS, STARFISH! C'MON, SLEEPING BEAUTY! UP AND AT 'EM! UP, UP, UP!"

The Prefect jerked into a sitting pose, his eyes large in fear at the spazzing blonde jumping up and down on his bed. "LETUM! Letum, stop that this minute!"

Lylia leapt off the bed and rolled onto the floor, standing and cackling as she bolted madly from the room.

"Stay OUT of my DORMITORY!" roared Aidon after her, to no effect. However Lylia had managed to find her way into the male dormitories, she taught the same secret method to _all the other Ravenclaw females_. The poor boys were waking up left and right to made-over faces, painted nails, and a feminine flurry of new ("Improved!" one girl assured) hairstyles.

Christmas had arrived with a rush of gender confusion. (Can't wait to see what Groundhog Day could bring.)

After a cheerful Christmas breakfast that included much laughter at the expense of the male side of Ravenclaw, the students all went to sort out their respective Common Room's presents.

Aidon received over a dozen identical packages filled with new, bright pink Hanes undergarments. His face was a much darker shade of pink by the end of unwrapping his 'gifts.'

Among Lylia's gifts, one came of great surprise to her. From a small, unmarked box she withdrew a small piece of onyx carved into the shape of a rose, strung on a string necklace. Not understanding the purpose of the anonymous gift but finding a piece of serenity in its cool surface, she slid it over her neck and tucked it under her iridescent mantle.

Blaise found himself the recipient of a brightly-decorated box of blue and white. In it was a charm bracelet, adorned with tiny little black wing charms and a single charm in the shape of a silver scythe. On the inside of the bracelet was an inscription:

'Solitude is the glory of being alone.'

That same day, Elden Lesperance crossed the threshold of an ancient and luxurious estate. He crossed marble tiles and entered a regal lobby, awaiting the beginning of his inheritance of his father's title and his mother's powers.


	6. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen: Numerous Months Covered in the Span of Two Days.

(This has very little to do with the plot. No, really. It's like a filler. A great filler. With candy.)

January the Ninth was, as very few knew, Severus Snape's birthday. Unfortunately, as soon as Lylia caught wind of it, Snape's entire House knew. It was that very morning that Kayla organized two bearers of the House's duo of gifts and had them individually sneak up and give Snape their respective present after breakfast.

"What are you doing?" The Potions Master glowered over his drink.

"It's a present!" cried all the students at Slytherin's table.

Snape stared at them unamusedly. "… A present."

Draco stood up, intervening to lighten the rapidly-darkening mood. "It's Silence, sir!"

Snape stared down the gift. "It's a white box."

"With white powder inside, Professor!" chimed in Kayla. "Sprinkle it over anything, and it immediately goes silent! It's like a silencing charm, but more effective!"

A change came over the teacher. He didn't smile- GOD, no. But the stern gleam behind his lethal gaze seemed to dull a bit. He seemed to sit back a little in his chair. In other words, he seemed… less severe. "… I appreciate this gift very much," he eventually stated.

The Slytherins gave up a clandestine cheer while the other designated gift-giver brought a fragile box up to the table and removed the gift from it for Snape. You didn't ask Snape to unwrap his own gifts. That didn't happen.

Revealed for the darkest of Hogwarts teachers was his second gift. It was a 3D Hangman game. Instead of the typical, faceless doll that would be used as the hanged man, however, there was a ludicrously pretty effigy of none other than Professor Lestoat. A little, fancy tag hung from its ankle that said, "Professor LeToast."

If Severus Snape was not Severus Snape, he would have cried in joy. Instead, he just quietly set away the gift after inwardly delighting at its sadistic pleasure. "You students… are the best a teacher could ask for."

The Slytherins partied extensively for such a huge success.

Lylia was missing in action for most of that day, but that night she was spotted by a couple random students as she was toting a bowl carefully down to the Dungeons.

Snape opened his office door at hearing a knock, but instead of seeing a person he saw a bowl at his feet. Trails of silver floated around in its transparent liquid, and a note floated on its surface:

Happy Birthday. I cannot give you anything greater than what you have already given me.

Below the note, memories gleamed here and there in the Pensieve: here, a strip of Wolfsbane burned intensely; there, a girl chatted happily on the teacher's home phone to her friend at the Malfoy's.

Snape silently lifted the bowl, for once giving a small, if _almost_ sarcastic, laugh as he retreated back inside his office and closed to door again.

Even when the students' break had ended and classes resumed once more in their earnest, Elden was not to be seen anywhere around the school. Thankfully, Lylia knew better than to try looking for him again. Kayla decided not to mention his absence, wary of some sort of argument the two might have had prior to his disappearance. Wherever he had gone, he seemed to have settled everything with his teachers beforehand, because none of them seemed curious as to his location. And although his rabid following of fangirls (and some fanboys, honestly) were always on the lookout for him, their anxiety only seemed to permeate throughout the whole of the student body when the infamous Lover's Holiday arrived.

"Can't we skip Valentine's Day this year?" whimpered Aidon into his after-breakfast snack of treacle pudding. "I need another year to work up the courage for something like this."

"The pink," Lylia moaned softly as she buried her face in her hands, curling up under their bench in the Transfiguration Courtyard. "It's everywhere…!"

To be fair, the colour pink _did_ seem to arrive in a horde that weekend. Cut-out strings of hearts lined the walls where they met the ceilings; romantic little candies had a bad habit of raining on the students at dinnertime from the oddly-pink clouds in the Great Hall; numerous girls of the school felt the need to wear pink itself in homage to the atrociously-swift invader.

"Valentine's Day isn't bad if you have someone to spend it with," Kayla pointed out as she took Draco's hand, getting off of the bench and heading for the Slytherin Common Room. "You guys know where to find us."

"Where's Karen?" Aidon asked as he slaughtered the remainder of his pudding with great gusto.

"She's sick again," answered Melinda as she unhurriedly filed one of her nails. "I visited her when I got up." She flicked her gaze to Lylia as the blonde reemerged from beneath the bench and began to leave. "Where ya going, Letum?"

"I'm going out for some air," she mumbled as she headed out across the thawing grass and aimed her steps for the castle's interior.

"We're already outside…" Aidon whispered to Melinda.

"Blaise," Lylia addressed the boy sitting calmly at the Slytherin table of the Great Hall. He looked over with a good deal of surprise.

"Lylia."

"Yep. That's me. What are you doing today?"

Blaise calmly looked down at his finished food, then at the couples around the other tables. "Living in denial of today's horror, it seems. You?"

Lylia remained just as calm on the outside, but inside her head she was silently freaking out about how not-psychotic Zabini was acting. "The same."

"Would you like to leave?"

The Ravenclaw canted her head in deliberation over the offer, but then she nodded. "Yeah, sure. Where are we going, again?"

Her new (and old?) date bit back a laugh to instead state their destination. "Hogsmeade."

"Oh. Right…" Lylia stepped back so Blaise could more easily stand, hesitantly taking him up on the offer of his arm as they headed off to the cold little village.

Sadly, the number of couples found there only increased. Lylia was far more concentrated, however, on the ruins of a certain inn only mildly blocked off from the general public by a few civilian barricades commonly used by police forces. Blaise looked over at her now and then as they were passing it, his expression concerned.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah… I just… Could we go inside somewhere? Like, a building?"

"… Yes, Lylia. We can go inside a building." Blaise began to look at her like_ she_ was the schizophrenic as they slipped inside Madam Puddifoot's.

"That was the worst option of buildings to enter," grumbled Lylia as she stormed out a couple hours later, brushing ridiculous femininely-coloured confetti off of her shoulders and out of her hair. Blaise followed out after her, laughing with every step.

"Aww, come on, Lylia! It wasn't that bad!"

"They tried serving horrid… THEMED drinks!" Lylia shuddered, hugging herself on the way back toward the trains.

"Ah, well…" The Slytherin shrugged with a smile.

"Blaise, I'm not trying to seem offensive, but you haven't been hearing or seeing things like usual…" Lylia glanced at him nervously over her shoulder.

"Easy," he smiled again. "I haven't since that… look into the Mirror."

"So… You didn't mind looking into it?" the blonde stopped near the station.

"Of course not. Why?"

"Well… I had E- Lesperance look into it… before he left." Lylia turned her gaze away in reminiscence, almost missing out on Blaise's passing look of hatred at hearing the name. "He didn't seem to enjoy it very much…"

"Hm. So he's not back yet. Such a… shame."

Lylia glanced over once more, a little less nervously than last time. "You really don't like him, do you…"

"He's a necromancer. He's like… Fake strawberries. A synthetic fruit."

The blonde smiled painedly. "Does the smell of Death bother you so?"

Blaise stepped in front of her, giving a reassuring stare. "No, Lylia. You're the real thing... No doubt."

Once the pair had returned to the school, Blaise offered Lylia his arm. "May I walk you to your dorm?"

She paused, hesitantly, then tucked her arm through his lightly. A playful gleam entered her gaze, giving a casual reference to Halloween. "Again?"

Blaise smiled quietly, catching her hand and pressing a soft kiss to its knuckles. "Yes… Again. Happy Valentine's Day, Lylia."

Lylia blushed faintly as her eyes were snagged momentarily on his. She forced a smile as she nodded, looking down and away.


	7. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen: The Snake in the Garden

While Lylia and her friends were quite cheerfully occupying themselves with awkwardly meeting up and mourning over holidays, the guests of their school were growing more and more restless. Kayla noticed it here and there: a Shiny would snicker as he passed a couple of the Aurors, or an Auror would look awfully happy with a wand in hand as a cluster of the Shinies went by. She mentioned none of it to her companions, however. It was not as though they could do much about it.

… It was hard to resist the urge to leave another Sticky Note, though.

One morning around the middle of April, when it was almost time for the flurry of exam studying to begin, Kayla learned that her pals were having temptation troubles of their own. Upon sitting down by Aidon, Lylia, and Draco for the usual breakfast, she noticed the Prefect playing with his food again.

"You guys have to help me…" he began as he toyed with a couple servings of toast. "How do I confess my feelings to a girl?"

Lylia blinked. "… Why am _I_ being asked?"

Draco, on the other hand, shrugged and drank his orange juice. "Just go for it."

No longer hungry (gasp!) for once, Aidon shoved aside his breakfast. "I… I can't do it."

Melinda haggardly stepped into the Great Hall, sitting down beside Aidon and eating his food as well as her own share. Lylia eyed the feasting girl with a look in her gaze that bespoke her tacit curiosity. The blonde's hand occupied itself with the obsidian rose carving she still had rested around her neck; her mind clicked a few facts together that she had not before considered.

"Melinda," she spoke up after some time in silence. "Why did your eating habits change so much? The more you eat, the worse you look."

Even Aidon stopped his ramblings as the group went silent, over half of its members looking at Lylia as though this lack of tact meant her sanity had finally snapped and evaporated.

"I beg your pardon?" Melinda was glaring stonily at the blonde.

"After the incident at Hogsmeade, I mean." Lylia explained just as rashly. "I heard you looked awful that morning, but by the time I had arrived again, you had eaten tons that dinner."

"And?" Melinda's gaze was turning steadily deadlier.

It became pellucid to Lylia that even if she had a point to make, no one would be happy to hear it. "… I'm glad you're eating well. That's all."

"Well, then. Don't remind me." The irate, pale Slytherin returned to eating. "Where's Karen?"

Judging the world to be at ease once more, Kayla took Draco's hand and guided him outside to wander the halls a little. Lylia cringed as she saw them go, unwilling to be left alone with Melinda and Aidon, but the deed was done. She took out her ivory wand and flicked it experimentally, a failure of gold dust puffing out of its tip. While muttering about herself on how she 'couldn't decide' on anything important, Lylia failed to notice Karen trot in.

The redhead bounced happily, if a bit weakly, over to their table. "Guess who has a date tonight with the most amazing teacher ever, AGAIN!"

"Karen, I don't know if that's very proper-" Aidon was interrupted.

"I don't care! Lylia."

"Hm?" Lylia looked up at the ginger warily.

"Do you know who sent you that necklace yet?"

Lylia frowned. "No. It was anonymous, as I've said…"

Shouting started outside the Hall. One voice was high and over-eloquent; the other, gruff and sharp. Auror security posted around the area were discretely making their way to the entrance of Hogwarts castle, their camouflage suits almost moving in unison. As Kayla and Draco found themselves following as well, the rest of the student body was doing the same. The head Domus Aurea boy, judging by his white robes embroidered with a small golden house on its breast, stood across from the obstinate Auror Trainee leader, whose arms were crossed and whose fedora was cocked to the side in his common sign of irritation.

"This has to be a joke!" the platinum blonde was practically screaming at him. "NO! We will NOT wear your Ministry-appointed UNIFORMS just to stay at this school!"

"All this… over a uniform?" remarked Kayla amazedly, shaking her head. "They're idiots- they're both in a foreign location."

"They compensate for it with power," Melinda muttered next to them, her eyes looking haunted. "I just hope they don't-"

Almost as if on cue to her wish opposing it, each leader drew their wand. As all the students gasped and began to draw back, Lylia lowered her line of sight to the floor and commenced walking away. At that same moment, a clear voice not heard in the school's walls for numerous months rang out along every corner of the cavern:

"Gentlemen, if you'd be so kind as to let me enter my school…"

Kayla looked on with the others even as Lylia froze, surprised.

Striding imperially forward through the path formed by the parting crowd; wearing a long, ancient silk robe as dark as night and described only as inheritance; and bearing a small, black, and stone rose on a string around his bared neck, the new Lord Lesperance gave each opposing side a cold winter's smile. "Quite a pleasant homecoming… Wouldn't you say?"

The students erupted into astonished and/or excited whispers, each about their old idol's return. Lylia spun around fast enough to slip and fall back onto the stairs she had been attempting to ascend; she quivered with the shock magnified in her eyes. Blaise caught sight of her alarmed state and weaved through the crowd to her side, kneeling by her.

"Are you okay?" His heart sank in his chest as he saw the object of her devout attention. She nodded at a snail's pace, stilling her own heart as best as possible from its hammering, breakneck speed.

"Lesperance," the leading Auror spat out the name as if it left a dirty taste. "The hell do you want? This is business."

"It's _Lord _Lesperance, if you please. And rest assured that I would never interfere with your underhanded business." Elden folded his arms coolly.

One of the Shinies that was standing near Lylia and Blaise's stairwell made the unforgivable mistake of opening up his mouth and saying something completely idiotic. "It's the filthy half-Veela!"

To him Elden turned a foreboding eye; a dark red ring rose around his pupils as a purely demonic grin parted his lips. "Speak again, and you shall be dirtied with your own blood."

The necromancer's eyes shifted, finding the pair of his old acquaintances on the stairs. Lylia gave up on controlling her heart when it then gave a twist and squeeze at her core from the sight of hellfire in Elden's eyes; she staggered to her feet and backed up against the wall, wishing she could just melt away through it and not have to face those eyes ever again. Elden's countenance changed, his features returning to their stoic state before he gave a grimace in apology, but the fedora-adorned Auror took advantage of this distraction to shoot a red beam from his wand at the necromancer.

Outraged, Kayla threw up a Shield Charm between Elden and the beam so that it'd be stopped. Once the Auror had turned to cast the same attack spell on the Slytherin, Elden sighed and lifted his ebony-coloured wand. A black dome rose and shone transparently around him, the leading Auror, and the leader of the Shinies.

"I have come too late for peace," he declared loudly so that the congregation of students could listen. In so doing, he silenced all of their whispering. "Hear me and mark, all of you. We are but trespassers in our own abode, thanks to these two warring teams. This castle has become a battlefield because they cannot express their own beliefs as they wish to. Go, now- go and hide or ready to defend what you love. Take sides, lie down and die, or make your peace."

The subdued blonde pressing herself to a wall shivered at hearing these words, hugging her Potions notebook and taking off up the stairs. Other students started getting the same idea after a few terrible minutes of unsteady quiet.

Draco took Kayla's hand and ran to the Dungeons, all of their House preparing for battle in a joint unit. Kayla herself was placed in charge of transfiguring any metal they could find into armor for them to use.

Lylia was ascending all the way to Ravenclaw Tower before anyone else had reached their high Common Room; after running inside, she soon came out with a crated Shadow in one hand and her Silver Arrow broom in her other hand.

"Come on, Helena!"

The Grey Lady followed behind Lylia. The still-living girl mounted her broom and broke straight through her favourite window of the gorgeous lounge area, not caring for its beauty while busy soaring down through the air like a shining bullet. The cat tucked under her arm in its crate screamed in protest with every yard.

Kayla slid on her chest plate, each Slytherin available wearing an identical one that bore a serpentine 'S' on its front. One remained, explained by Kayla as Draco casted a questioning look: "That one's for Professor Snape."

The nineteen-year-old Slytherin just nodded and pulled his girlfriend into a passionate, brief kiss. "Just in case," he stated gravely, heading up in front of the fireplace to speak. Melinda, near the back of the room, dropped her chest plate to the side with a louder clang than she expected and ran out of the Common Room right as Draco was beginning to talk.

Aidon called the name of only one girl as he searched throughout numerous halls of the school, desperation straining his voice and his nerves. He eventually ran up to Ravenclaw Tower, not even finding himself distressed by the huge, broken window.

Lylia set her cat in its crate down by the lakeside, casting a Bubble Charm to keep the crate and its precious contents dry. As soon as this was accomplished, she chucked it into the Black Lake as far as possible, shouting with the Gray Lady by her side, "It'll be okay, Shadow! Helena knows where you are too, so she can tell others and they can get you out too! … Just in case…"

Elden ducked out of the entryway to the castle as shots began flying, spotting an emerald tail vanishing around a corner.

Trelawney was awoken by the urgent shouts of numerous teachers around her and joined them in their crusade from the Hospital Wing, each among their ranks heading to their respective House's dorm or going out to round up disorganized students from the school's numerous nooks and crannies.

No one had noticed Melinda's absence as Draco began his speech:

"This will be huge. The fight of our lives. And… we're not even ready to be told we live the _normal _lives of witches and wizards yet. But we must hang together as a House… Or we will all hang separately. Now, as a House… Where will our loyalty lie?"

"With Hogwarts," called out Snape from the doorway. He slid on his chestplate smoothly, his keen eyes gleaming in true intent. "With the other Houses. With the lives we know and need to preserve. That is where our loyalty should lie, will always lie, and shall lie today." For once, all the Slytherins agreed on something as a cheer went up.

Having made the hurried flight back to the school, Lylia had abandoned her broom and was running pell-mell along the nearest hall she had found, her Potions notebook dropped aside. Her long, glistening mantle waved out behind her in unison with her blonde hair. A small explosion occurred as a stray spell hit a wall near her, giving the sturdy castle's hallway a good sway.

Snape opened the door to the Slytherin Common Room and stepped out solidly, a wave of his wand-wielding arm felling a trio of Auror trainees who were lying in wait. "Sectumsempra!"

Aidon ran up to greet them and flailed as he was almost hit by the same spell. Unhurt and out of breath, he wheezed, "Slytherins! T-the Gryffindors have grouped midway in, at the central courtyard!" Spotting Kayla, he busted through the ranks of chestplate-clad students. "Kayla! I've found all of us but Melinda, Lylia, and Karen. They can take care of themselves, except maybe Lylia- she causes so much trouble- the Grey Lady said she ran off into the castle alone!"

"She's what?" Kayla's soul leapt to her throat. The House Elves charged forth from a room nearby, brandishing knives and fury. Snape stopped in his path of protective defenses and powerful attacks, his sigh wispy as he heard Aidon's statement. Draco beside him caught wind of one word:

"Lylia…"

The Ravenclaw Prefect panted but straightened up with difficulty, going on hoarsely. "We have to find her. But I wish I could find…" He trailed off, his eyes growing foggy in emotion he couldn't express.

By then, Lylia had reached a long, wall-enclosed, and covered bridge that was lined on each side of its walkway by tall, thin windows that gave glorious views to the Grounds. If she had been paying attention, she would have seen the gathering of overcast stormclouds over the campus. Before she could cross the planks, however, a wicked terror wracked her form and caused her to desperately hug herself in an attempt to find condolence.

Karen fled wildly up the Grand Staircases, vanishing inside the Defense Against the Dark Arts room to find safety from the attack.

Kayla reviewed her options, then nodded: "I'm going to go find Lylia."

"NO!" shouted Draco. "You're not going alone!"

"I'm going with her," Snape found courage enough to speak. "Draco… I leave you in charge of our students." To all gathered, the Slytherins had ceased to be students and had become troops, legions in an army to defend its castle.

Taking his order like a reluctant promotion, Draco nodded. "… You just take good care of her, Professor."

"Body and soul," was his answer as he hurried off with Kayla in the lead. They reached Lylia as Blaise was trying to hold onto the shoulders of her pathetic figure.

"Lylia!" shouted Snape. "What's wrong with her?"

Blaise looked up in his attempts to guide the girl, who was hugging herself, across the bridge. He immediately stopped and turned to face his Head of House, relief. "It's Hartland and the Professor!"

Lylia herself turned to face them as well with a swish of her cloak's iridescent fabric, stopping in her tracks but not yet lowering her tightly-folded arms. A welcome smile spread her lips as she saw them both to be unhurt. "Thank God…"

But still, from the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a large, emerald serpent she had so often seen when alone. Now all gathered saw the irritably hissing behemoth that was twice Nyx's size, its twisting form bearing the same lethal elegance as the black King Cobra as it darted between their feet and paused, almost as if it were calculating something.

Kayla stared openly at the beast. "Well, Lyl… You weren't imagining it after all." Nyx herself slithered out of her owner's chestplate and bobbed her head furiously at catching scent of its green, strange counterpart.

A fiercely-intelligent hiss emerged from the green snake, its ruby eyes going to Lylia for only a second prior to its lightning-fast lunge for her. Its mouth opened mid-strike, fangs oozing terrible venom.

As both the predator and its prey fell to the wood flooring of the bridge, Elden ran in via the same route as the enemy snake, shouting fervidly at the others, "Don't STRIKE it!"

Kayla looked at Elden as he passed her, her expression clearly stating that he had lost his mind. Blaise was held back from Lylia and the green snake only by Nyx, who was poised dangerously in front of him, obeying Elden out of her own fear for him.

The attacked blonde sat up in astonishment, finding herself unwounded as she scrambled back from the serpent, which was writhing in agony after having bitten into her cloak. Elden advanced, his eyes gazing unblinkingly at Lylia:

"You received that cloak as a birthday present, as you told me that dark night so long ago. I knew what it was from the first time I saw it, at the Dark Tower. Its colour is… strange, wouldn't you say so?" At his last statement, a humorless laugh fell from his lips. "No ordinary shawl."

Lylia just stared up at him without comprehension, trying her best to not repeat her try-to-fade-into-a-wall routine.

Kayla was staring as well, but she still didn't think he was sane. "So, what _is _it?"

Lord Lesperance smirked, grabbing Lylia's arm and yanking her up to her feet- also examining her cloak at the same time. "It is one of Britain's Thirteen Treasures: The Mantle of Tegau Eufron… Eufron, the original owner, has a legend attached to her saying how she impaled herself in order to save her dearest love from a snake's attack. It would seem that, as I suspected, the cloak continues to do so and…" A wider, devious smirk was now twisting his lips. "… Though it may seem unrelated… It will never fit an, _ahem_, 'tainted' woman, but on a _chaste_ maiden it shall reach the floor."

After hearing this, Lylia jerked the fabric out of his hands, reddening deeply.

Kayla grinned at the warped chemistry the two shared, but then she looked confused. "Wait. Karen gave you that cloak, Lylia…"

"Let me guess. It didn't _fit_ Karen anymore." Elden threw in his thought with a cheeky wink at Lylia that earned him a shaming stare from her.

"We'll worry about that later!" Kayla tried to grab their attention. "Right now, we have a castle full of people that need saving!"

This statement, for a reason he had not yet revealed, sent Elden into hysterical, mirthless laughter. "Oh, no. No, no. Go no, and you'll die! There's a traitor among you!"

Snape's eyes darkened warily, while Kayla blanched in fear.

"A… A traitor?" Kayla was looking around at their gathering of students, teacher, necromancer, and serpents. "Who?"

Never one to pass up an opportunity for torment, Elden now turned his gaze to smirk derisively at Blaise. "Why… The Dark One, of course." With a flick of his wand, the green snake stopped its writhing and was dragged to the small assembly's center.

Blaise paled to a degree that made even his dark skin look pasty. "N-no…! Th-The Dark One isn't supposed to be real! No! NO!"

Lylia began to shake as she rose to her feet, looking around between the different points of chaos. "What's going on?"

"HOMORPHUS!" shouted Elden.

The pained snake shifted into the agonized form of a young girl with curly black hair and unhealthy pallor. Melinda stood slowly, straightening, scowling with deadly anger at Elden. "You bastard…"


	8. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen: Friends' Returns and the Rising Darkness

Kayla looked floored as she witnessed a beast turned into a perverted beauty. She then turned extremely angry, twitching and barely keeping herself from attacking Melinda with her bare hands. However, her look was nothing compared to Blaise's: only extreme terror at the shattering of his reality was keeping him at bay. Snape had backed up a couple paces, quietly. Lylia backed a few steps away herself, her expression bewildered.

"Melinda…?"

"SHUT UP! You all seem so SURPRISED!" Melinda whirled to face them each. "YES! I did it. I told the goddamn Addonexi about the Hogsmeade celebration! I poisoned Draco Malfoy!" She pointed at Kayla. "Wasn't it at all_ suspicious_, me getting all FRIENDLY when he got ill? If I wasn't supposed to have killed you already, Kayla, you pathetic, STUPID heir, I wouldn't be so DOCILE to you! I just-"

She cut off as Elden drew his wand, pointing her own at him before his had fully left his robe's sleeve. "YOU! You ruined EVERYTHING!"

Kayla's voice was unforgiving and broken, begging for Elden to curse Melinda into oblivion. "You bitch…"

Snape, silent with Melinda's back to him, crouched momentarily to pick up a Chocolate Frog purchased by a certain student mere hours before he became presumed dead in the Three Broomstick's fall. It was the same Chocolate Frog he had asked his closest friend, an innocent blonde girl, to hold for him. Snape dropped aside the Chocolate Frog's card without looking at it and whispered to Kayla, inching his way behind her, "When I tell you to, open your hand behind your back so I can place something in its palm. Do you understand?" His reply was only a faint nod.

Elden, his eyes promising a fair but sure death, circled Melinda with his wand now ready for attack. She was clever, however; she jerked to feint towards Lylia, her barely-coloured face smiling with abominable glee when she saw Elden running to the blonde's defense. She half-turned at the last millisecond, as swift and as lithe as she was in her snake form as she shouted at the man:

"VENTUS!"

With a sharp rip of air slicing air, Elden was hit straight in the chest by a massive gust of wind and soared back with it, right through one of the bridge's windows. He plummeted out over the lake and down into the dark, swirling waters. And with that, the necromancer was gone.

Lylia gave a ragged scream, running to the broken aperture. "ELDEN!"

"Portus!" chanted Snape to his hand's contents as he turned them into two Portkeys. "NOW, Kayla!"

The still-loyal Slytherin opened her hand on cue, still glaring at the traitor. Blaise launched himself at the exposed 'Dark One,' a fear-filled cry wrenched from his lips. His mind was completely gone, only thinking of eliminating the threat and protecting Lylia. Snape dropped the actual Chocolate Frog into Kayla's hand and threw its case at Lylia, who caught it automatically and without thought.

In that moment, both Kayla and Lylia were transported by the two portkeys off to Hogsmeade. Before they had completely left and reappeared in their new location, Kayla locked eyes with the Potions Master and saw him smiling brokenly. He said one single, humble sentence:

"Heir to Salazaar Slytherin, forgive me for loving Death."

And then all of Hogwarts was gone from Kayla, leaving her in the ashes of the village's Three Broomsticks. She swallowed back her own shocked tears, mutely attempting to comfort her best friend. Lylia stayed lying down where she had landed, sobbing onto a fallen beam of wood from the destroyed building.

Not a minute had passed, though, before Lylia raised her gaze to the distant castle's sky, where a dark cloud was precipitating from the stormclouds around it and descending onto Hogwarts. "K-Kayla… Look…! That's them! The Addonexi…! I can FEEL it…! I felt that same feeling right before I t-tried to cross the bridge…!"

Kayla took her best friend's hand and tried helping her stand, her fear momentarily washed away and leaving her as a pillar of strength for her shaken friend. "… We can't stay here."

Melinda snarled as she jabbed her wand into Blaise's chest. "Incarcerous," was her hiss as he was tied-up. He screamed bloody murder to no avail, struggling against his bonds. The bloodlust-filled girl looked around for the culprit of who stole her other prize kills, but Snape had taken off to help the other students once he was sure the Portkeys had taken away Lylia and Kayla.

Lylia grabbed Kayla's hand; but instead of using it to rise, she jerked Kayla down by it to pull her to the rubble's level as a group of four black-robed men appeared only a number of yards away, four killing curses soaring over the pair of girls. As Kayla forced her lungs to keep filling with air, she turned an ashy gray, her wand shaking in her hand.

Draco looked anxious as Snape joined them. "Where's Kayla?"

"In a safer place," replied the Potions Master as he leapt onto a bench and flung a hex at a cluster of would-be attackers. "Melinda was about to kill them, but Zabini distracted her."

The Malfoy's shock was barely covered by his need to continue remaining dedicated to his fighting.

Meanwhile, Melinda was pointing her wand directly at Blaise's forehead, her eyes daggers. "You useless tool! You pathetic worm! How dare you strike out at your ruler, ME! DON'T TREAD ON ME!"

Her color-free wand matching her complexion's hue, Lylia tugged Kayla behind a taller chunk of the ruins as ominous chanting began from their anonymous attackers. Sulfurous acid began to pelt the wood shielding them, spitting and hissing like a spurned and feral creature.

Kayla tried her best to quell the fear making her feel sick from the resurfacing of her nightmares, now their new reality. "What do we do, Lyl?"

Lylia took a few petrified breaths, shaking her head as a threatening spell sent rocks flying by over their heads. The two girls could make out the sound of the four men striding forward as steadily as time does to all men's lives. "I… I don't know… We couldn't possibly fight them all…!"

A broken lock whistled as it fell from the sky and landed between Lylia's feet. Perplexed, she lifted it.

One piercing shriek of an enormous bird sang through the air above. Lylia and Kayla looked up into the doleful sky as the clouds were broken by a white form like the escaping of a dream from a nightmare's chains. Eli the Occamy descended like a holy instrument from the brief sun, his fully-grown magnificence gleaming on silken feathers as all twenty-five feet of the blessing from heaven swooped down, viciously batting the four attackers onto their own created destruction with a slash of claws and lash of tail. A sickening crunch was all the noise that the four men had time to make as they were dashed on the stone remains of the Three Broomsticks.

Kayla's face shone with hope as she stood with wobbling legs. "Eli!"

Her eyes alarmed as she rose to behold the Occamy landing in front of them, Lylia swallowed hard. "Y-you know this guy…?"

The brunette nuzzled the serpent-bird. "He was Talem's, you see… He showed him to me before… well, before what happened. He left Eli in my care..." Eli was cooing happily, nestling into Kayla's neck with his beak.

Lylia looked with wonder upon the bird, her eyes tearing up as it was all explained. "… I… I see…" She turned her wet eyes down to the broken lock still held in her hand, and she read the combination aloud: "T…A…L…E…M." Taking a deep breath, she looked toward the castle with a new hardness in her eyes that withstood the erosion of her blinked-back tears. "Kayla… Eli… We're going back."

"Gotcha," smiled Kayla, stroking Eli's feathery down.

The blonde tossed and caught the lock, eyeing the Occamy. "I think…we have our way back."

Aidon looked up some stairs as he heard Melinda's furious screams echoing from beyond its length. Dashing up them and taking off as he followed the steady shrieks, he soon located the fateful bridge.

Melinda was walking menacingly towards the tied-up Blaise, her wand shooting green sparks. "I could have killed them both! BOTH of them, you hear? You've cost the Dark One far too much strife, Scythe!"

"Cadorous!" Aidon waved his wand as Melinda raised her own to smite Blaise. She spun once, as if pulled by an invisible guide, and tripped over a piece of glass left from Elden's break of the window. Her most horrid scream emerged as she fell from the bridge, tumbling not out over the Lake but to the rocks far below the walkway.

The ropes holding Blaise loosened and fade with their conjurer's death. He stood up, staring at Aidon. "… Thank you."

The Prefect was peering out over the bridge's side when he heard Blaise. He looked to the Slytherin, jaw set. "Do you have someone _you_ love? I do, but it wasn't Melinda… No. Melinda was a bad date." He helped Blaise to his feet. "I might see you again, Zabini. Or… I might not. But my point is, what I've always believed is… Find whatever it is you love. Do everything you can for them, even though it might never be enough. I'm… trying to do that right now."

Blaise nodded in empathy. "I wish you luck." He took off with those words, in search of what he loved.

Aidon was about to leave the bridge, but he stopped. He picked up a discarded Chocolate Frog card. His face became livid as he read it, and he saw a terribly familiar face grinning up at him. "Oh my God…" The card read:

Amarillo Lestoat

Flamboyant American vampire and author.

Born: 1776.

Presumed dead: 1977.

The nerve-shot Prefect tore off for the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, leaving behind its teacher's awful face on the card. "KAREN!"

Deep below the churning surface waters of the Black Lake, a midnight-dressed man was sinking steadily lower, into the blackness below. His left hand found a modicum of strength as he drowned with the air knocked from his lungs, his fingers curling around a stone rose he had carried for months on his neck. With every bit of his last, failing energy, Elden Lesperance pointed his wand toward the surface.

But it remained undisturbed.

As the rest of the school continued to fight on, Kayla and Lylia arrived on Eli's back at the school's borders. A premature twilight began to fall on the school as the air darkened, bringing with it a bout of foul air. With it came several black-robed figures, identical to those in Hogsmeade, in pockets and packs onto the Grounds. More and more starting appearing as the people inside the castle stopped their battle, each and every fighter giving a sickening pause of silence. In that quiet, the leaders of the Ministry and Rebel sides looked at each other.

"… This changes nothing," the leader of the Domus Aurea boys said.

"Nothing but everything," answered the head of the Aurors.

"We fight as one, then?"

"One driving force."

They both turned to McGonagall, who was standing beside Malfoy.

"Miss?" they asked in unison.

The Headmistress's look was not austere but commanding. "Not as one: as three teams joined."

She walked forward with the other two, their wands raising and meeting above their heads in one anti-apocalyptic harmony: the light, the neutral, and the dark together united.

Lylia looked around fearfully as literal swarms of her deepest phobia started to appear. Eli stepped in front of Kayla as the invaders arrived, his wings wide and spread in challenge. It was behind their shelter that Lylia and Kayla parted ways, the brunette staying put while the blonde ran off along the heightened shadows of the castle's outer walls, looking for a back entrance or side door. Kayla had no time to notice Lylia's disappearance, however; she was much too busy keeping alert of the new foes.

Matching military tactics to light magic, the Aurors found pairs among the assorted Domus Aurea boys and made their way to the school's makeshift outer barracks. Unnoticed by them all, a black object fell from Ravenclaw Tower and, drawn by an untold force, tumbled its way down into the water of the lake as the new war over Hogwarts began.

Lylia paused in her searching for another entrance to the castle, her eyes transfixed on the sky. "I…"

A jet of magenta light fired like electricity through the ranks of defenders, striking McGonagall directly in her aged heart.

Snape ran to kneel by the fallen Headmistress. "Minerva!"

Kayla caught sight of the blow, running over to the pair of teachers.

"Hartland? What are you doing here?" demanded the Potions Master.

"What's wrong with Professor McGonagall?" was the answer he received.

The teacher wouldn't reply for some time, looking between the student and Gryffindor Head as if contemplating the consequences of getting the two involved. "… It's her heart, it seems. The blow's sending her into shock." Snape lifted McGonagall's lined hand into his and squeezed it gently, reassuringly.

"We need to get her out of here, then. To St. Mungo's."

Snape shook his head, looking to Kayla. "How do you propose we do that, then? She's too weak to Apparate, and I have nothing around in this chaos to make a Portkey."

The brunette girl was silent as well for a few seconds in wracking her brain for a way out. Her eyes lifted to the large gargoyle statue again which McGonagall was trying to sit up.

"I have a way." Kayla's wand raised. "Vivus Vitavi!"

The gargoyle seemed to take on its own sentience as its muscles began to flex beneath its stone skin, its entire form springing to life at Kayla's will. It lifted Professor McGonagall carefully into its arms and, wings spreading, took off into the sky.

Kayla grinned despite herself. "First time I've gotten one to really fly… Professor Snape," she turned. "Where are Draco and the others?"

"Rallying for a charge at the central courtyard."

"Then I should be there." Without another pause, Kayla took off for the rallying point.

Snape eyed the assailants that swarmed in to surround the hall, his stance cool. "Your passion is understandable," he commented to them. "… But this is no way to take a girl's hand."

The Hufflepuff Dueling Club and Draco's mini-posse, having found Lylia's dropped Potions notebook, decided to form a squad:

"Oi! Slytherins!" inquired Hank. "Where's Snape's storeroom for ingredients?"

"Right this way!" one of the cronies gave a mocking bow.

Aidon Haynes broke through the door to the classroom that was his destination, an uncharacteristically fierce growl given by him demanding, "Lestoat! Where are you?"

At the back of the dim room, the Professor smiled shallowly, holding a limp form in his arms as Aidon entered. "Greetings, Prefect Haynes. What brings you here?" The doll-like body in his arms opened her stunning eyes to smile weakly.

"Oh… Aidon… Hey."

His legs shaking as he went forward, Aidon glared at the vampire. "For how long have you fed on her? Since she 'changed' by some miracle? Are you why she was always 'sick'?"

"Quite so," cackled the teacher gleefully as a colourless hand removed from Karen the scarf she always wore. Red and gold stripes fell to the floor of the classroom, their knitted pattern stained with crimson just as the snow a few months earlier had been. On the girl's fair neck were two gaping, hideous holes.

Although every atom in his body was spurring him on against the teacher, Aidon felt his eyes grow wet as he saw the wound. His heart was torn into two lonely pieces from its original, orderly unity. "You… You monster…"

"I'm afraid you must die," the calm beast said, dropping Karen carelessly to the floor and stepping over her motionless body. "Do not bother resisting, dear boy. How could you kill the undead with magic?"

The poor Prefect's fear and hesitation broke completely as Lestoat dropped Karen, his green eyes turning poisonous as he answered icily, "I don't need magic to kill an abomination like you." As the vampire launched at him, the mere teenager leaned forward a little and planted his feet, taking on every pound of the creature's deadly weight to plunge his wand deeply into the vampire's heart.

After the stillness of final rest filled the eyes of Amarillo Lestoat and his form degraded into dust, Aidon collapsed exhaustedly in the cloud of the undead's repose's particles, his bloodied wand rolling away.

Lylia's gaze was, throughout all the tribulations befalling those around her, still engrossed by the sky. She was oblivious to the legions starting to near her, her aura shining the blackest of glows as it radiated up into the sky, drawing closer and closer the oblivion that had sought her out for so long. A boy within the school had noticed this aura and ran desperately to her side.

"Lylia!" Blaise cried. "Lylia, what are you doing?"

She turned her eyes almost unseeingly to him as she was called. The black numbers continued to increase around the pair, beginning to form a circle that threatened to close in and crush the two destiny-laden students. Thunder cried out from above as the storm finally broke free of its heavenly prison, its lightning clashing dangerously down onto the lake. As the concerned Slytherin tried to pull Lylia protectively into his arms, the blonde seemed to regain her senses, drawing away from her friend.

"Blaise, what's going on?"

The lake began to churn under the weather's change, the circle of assailants stopping in their hunting to watch the waters.

"We have to get somewhere safe!" shouted Blaise over the chaos of wind and water. "The Addonexi-" he gestured at their enclosing enemies.

The scent of Hogwarts Lake's churning water faded as an overlaying smell of decay permeated throughout the entirety of the school and its Grounds, thick and heavy in its repulsive stench. Every Addonexi member stopped in the fight to turn their eyes on Hogwarts' tallest tower. A single man stood on its spire's tip, his hood lowered to show a skeletal face bearing a maniacal smile. Snow white hair rested on his head's crown, but none of it hid his blood-red eyes.

"Mortals!" he shouted out with ease over the entire school. "Give me your sight!"

Blaise was already looking on with silent horror. Kayla arrived at the inner courtyard, where the different Houses have gathered: Slytherins wore their chestplates, Hufflepuffs bore shields, Gryffindors had swords, and Ravenclaws had on helms. Not one student moved, all of their eyes on the harbinger of doom. He spread his arms wide, addressing them all again:

"I am Nexus! Leader of your precious new friends!"

The Domus Aurea boys and the Aurors gave distrustful looks to the Addonexi.

"Your school here has a veritable treasure load of magical energy! Al lthat I want to do is HARNESSS it! For… a little renovation of the world. You see, we've done a good bit of research. Who gathered here knows of the Four Horsemen…? No one…?"

Blaise paled. "Lady Death… You need to get out of here."

The blonde just shook her head, face paler still. "If I go… who will die in my stead…?"

"Surely," Nexus went on. "One of you knows how they ride? Through the opening of seals, they unleash HELL upon the world!" The wide smile on his lips twisted devilishly. "Guess what location has been conscripted and chosen as a gateway by yours truly… All that's missing is the dearest Guest of Honour!" Laughing madly, he raised a hand. A long dart, dripping with blood, formed between his fingers out of the air itself. With a cry, he hurled it out above the castle's central courtyard:

"Come to me, my key! Death, show your glory!"

The unholy projectile glided over the walls and split itself into numerous identical darts, all flying directly at Lylia and Blaise. Before they could hit Lylia, purple flames spewed forth from the lake, encasing each arrow and destroying it. Blaise, not understanding so much of what was happening, finally hugged the blonde to him protectively, trying to shield her with his own body from the immeasurable peril they were facing.

"I will die to protect you… My love." Eyeing the miraculous fire, Blaise whispered his words hoarsely into her ear, as if holding in endless tears. "Whenever that time comes."

Lylia stayed still in the hold this time, her eyes sad in their comprehension. "… Blaise…"

Seeing the fire but not its creator, Nexus howled his fury at the clouds. "WHICH of you MAGGOTS stopped that?"

"It was ME, a defiler of nature and a liege of the departed!"

The answer had emanated from the lake, fearless and spiteful. As predator and prey alike watched the swirling and turbulent water, Elden Lesperance rode up from the watery grave that had tried destroying him. He was standing astride the back of a large, white horse, and that very kelpie's mane eternally dripped its water onto a black bridle decorated with gothic crosses- the very bridle Lylia had bought at the school year's start.

His wand aloft, Elden drew the violet flames back into it, lightning from the celestial heights above them all evaporating away drops of water that fell from the necromancer like black blood. Blaise watched Lord Lesperance with unsuppressed sorrow, still holding Lylia to him. Nexus fumed on the tower, his scarlet eyes blazing.

"Meddling… Accursed… Foolish…!"

"Fool or sage, we all bloom and wither away!" yelled the necromancer back in a voice loud enough for all to hear. He raised the black strip of wood in his hand once more. "NOW!"

On his command, dozens, hundreds of other kelpies broke through the water and charged in a huge white arc at the Addonexi clogging the Grounds. The black-hidden attackers inside the school milled around as Nexus screamed for them to fight, their intent again to slay the students. In the chaos that erupted, the Hufflepuff Dueling Club and Draco's posse launched into the school's corridors, flinging potions on all nearby Addonexi. Their failed attempts at potions were simply set on fire and dumped on the invaders, or simply thrown in their cauldrons at the dark wizards.

As Nexus's attention shifted away, Elden rode to his adversary and his attachment, both of whom were still by the castle walls. While Blaise glared him down warily, the necromancer ignored the call to argue with him and leapt off the kelpie.

"Ready to fight for that freedom?" His eyes found Lylia's and kept them locked.

Lylia slowly removed herself from Blaise's arms, not breaking the eye contact with Elden. "… Blaise, I'll meet you in the courtyard. Go."

After a long, reluctant moment, Zabini agreed and mounted the kelpie, racing off to the epicenter of the fighting with reigns held furiously in white-knuckled hands.

The numbers of each battling side seemed to begin evening out into equal struggles, but Lylia continued to watch the necromancer as the storm's rain cascaded down around them in sheets. Almost in penitence, Elden knelt and familiarly put the blonde's hand to his cheek, his hard exterior melting momentarily for a rare smile and a close of his eyes to the girl who he saw himself holding in the Mirror of Erised.

"Love, Lylia Letum… Why did you choose the kelpie…?"

"…" Lylia bended down just as quietly, leaving a lingering kiss brushed against his lips before she headed off at a run for the castle. One sentence was shouted to him through the rain, over her shoulder. "I'm a defiant girl, remember?"

Elden reopened his soft eyes and kept his watch on her until she was impossible to make out from the rain. A remark fell from his lips, spoken to no one in particular.

"You know… I will never forget that girl."


	9. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen: The Connections

Nexus vanished from his high post and sprinted his way off into the depths of Hogwarts, the battles all around growing more and more intense. Kayla looked up at Blaise in shock beside Malfoy as Zabini entered on the kelpie. Lylia ran out onto the bloodstained cobblestones not much later, the other kelpies charging through the castle as swiftly as the spirits of the deceased that sought vengeance from the Addonexi. Their battles focusing now on the foes inside the walls, the Addonexi who remained outside all collected around the troublesome necromancer who now stood alone.

Smirking as always, Elden faced the swarm of Addonexi without trepidation and cracked his neck. "I'm liking these odds…"

Back in the courtyard, Nyx had been struck by an enlarging charm that engorged her to the size of her mistress. She attacked any who tried to hurt Kayla, squeezing them toyingly or filling them with her venom. Kayla covered her snake in turn as the fighting raged on. Draco made his way to her side, battling as best as possible while worried out of his mind.

Lylia was about to join in the fighting, but she instead froze as she heard the peals of one of Hogwarts' many bells. Her head rose slowly to gaze upon the nearest, highest belltower.

Catching sight of her friend's lack of involvement in the fight, Kayla blasted attacks to protect them both while she tried following the blonde's gaze. "What's going on, Lyl?"

But Lylia said nothing. Her breath was caught in a wretched gasp.

High up, in the light of the belltower, Talem Kyker stood before the ringing bell, atop the only rail that kept him from falling. A single scream from his lips parted the storm to two girls below. "LYLIA!"

Amazed into shock, Kayla stopped her fighting. "Oh my God…"

One other student heard the boy's cry. Elden stopped in the middle of his own, single-handed battle, looking over at the source of the scream. Though the rain was far too thick for him to see any features of the lighted silhouette, there was no doubt in his mind as to who the shouter was.

"… Well played, Kyker… Have your love." With a fractured, empty grin, the necromancer again faced his crowd of adversaries. "I still have… my PURPOSE!"

Lylia bolted through the enemies and comrades to an open spot of the courtyard, her eyes' attention never leaving the boy in the tower. She pointed her ivory wand at the first friend she had made in this new life, her entire mind locking itself down to concentrate on the single most life-changing memory she had: a fragile kiss shared by a boy and a girl in the silent snow. Nothing more, nothing less. The necessary memory now embedded in its place, a door opened in Lylia Letum's soul that shone through her eyes as she shouted with every passion held in her heart:

"ARCESSO ANIMAM!"

The aura manipulation spell flourished from her wand without a second thought, gold light banishing the gloom around her as it spilled forth from her wand's tip like ambrosia of the immortals. It fell in a bright pool around her feet and began to boil in the rain, taking on her soul's form. Lylia began to rise into the air, standing on the back of a giant creation; the gold nectar hardened like sap into amber, emerging from the ground as a shining Dracolich. Its skeletal wings extended from its back as it flew its glowing guide up to the top of the belltower.

Kayla almost dropped her wand in being completely stunned. Thankfully, all the other combatants were just as shocked.

Once at the level of the belfry, Lylia's golden escort faded away as she leapt across the open air to the long-lost friend that was standing on the rail. However, Talem was pulled back at the last moment by a rough hand, Nexus shoving the boy back and out of the way. Lylia was blessedly able to grab the rail to avoid falling to her certain death, wrapping an arm around the dangerous beam of metal as her fingers began to slip from the rainwater. Talem stumbled backwards from the shove and landed against the stolen Mirror of Erised that was leaning against the wall near the stairs. Instead of hitting the glass, however, the boy fell back and into the Mirror as if it were an open door leading to another, empty room.

Nexus stalked across the alcove from the Mirror's side after teasingly giving its reflective surface a solid knock. "Nice vanity glass, eh?" He propped a foot up against the rail that had so scarcely saved Lylia, acting as though he was having a casual conversation with an old acquaintance. "I thank you for your energy. That's how it works, you know. See how he fell through? That Gate's starting to open, thanks to you being here in such an… emotional state…"

The sound of frantic running started from the base of the belltower, but all at its zenith ignored it. Nexus flipped his rain-drenched, white hair from his face and smiled down madly at Lylia. Her eyes went to Talem, who had scrambled to his feet and was beating desperately against the fickle glass. The pain of both her bending arm and the sight of her imprisoned friend made Lylia's expression twist.

"Let him go!"

"But he's insurance!" smiled Nexus as he pressed his foot all the harder against the rail. It gave a precarious creak as two of its securing nails fell out it, its curve beginning to extend outwards, back over the expanse of air holding the treacherous possibility of falling to a disgusting demise. "What's it like, Death? Being you, I mean. Death. Meeting you at last is _marvelous_!"

His hand jerking out before him, the mad albino grabbed her life-saving mantle and unclasped it, letting it fall away and down into the rain. He allowed her only a few seconds to be penetrated by the queasy fear of her closeness to a literally shattered end in the courtyard far below them, given the example of her cloak as a hint. Nexus then grabbed her tightly by the throat and lifted her bodily from the rail, depositing her on the floor beside him. "Now… How to get the power OUT of you, deary? Maybe if I get you upset or scared enough, your energy will shred your mind and be free to my will of its own choice…"

Lylia didn't give a verbal answer, coughing frailly where she lied without breath. She was able to offer to resistance as Nexus drew out a dark red wand. Thankfully, a pair of gargoyles charmed by Kayla soared into the belfry at that very moment, buying the blonde a few precious moments while Nexus was occupied with turning them into gravel. Seizing her wand and forcing herself to her feet, Lylia was met with an all-too-happy grin from the mastermind of Hogwarts' besiegement.

"Kill me, and your buddy's stuck forever."

Lylia forced all her courage into hardening her eyes' glare. "If that's the Gate, and I'm its key, I'll open it myself."

The man's vermilion eyes narrowed foully in displeasure. "Fine. Then strike me."

"… Expelliarmus!"

The lethal, red stare was unbroken and unfazed, and his wand remained firmly in his hand.

"Expelliarmus!" she tried again.

"No, NO!" Nexus answered in a shriek at the spell's ineffectiveness, giving Lylia a punch in the gut and letting her fall to her knees from the pain. "Normal magic is too weak against me, don't you SEE?" His false joy was completely shed in his rage at her failure to attack him, and he jerked his wand toward her. "However… I can use magic on YOU just fine! The Killing Curse will kill you well enough, but I can probably just gut you and take the energy from your spilled BLOOD! AVADA-"

Blaise threw himself at Nexus from the stairs with a roar, slamming into the man's waist. "STAY AWAY FROM HER!"

Nexus fell down from the strength of the physical slam, but he rolled back onto his feet with an animalistic snarl, his boney face twisted like a beast's as he shot but one curse at Blaise. "_Scindare_!"

As the strike hit home, Blaise's organs were ruptured internally as if hacked at by a crude blade. Extreme pain blared through him, making him scream with agony. He staggered to his own feet for only a few costly instants, sending one spell of black, hellish fire at Nexus before his knees completely gave out.

Blaise looked over at Lylia as his vision began to dim. "D-dearest…"

He crumpled to the stone, face-down. Nexus had writhed his way down a good number of the stairs, the sheer desperation and unexpected nature of Blaise's attack having somewhat passed his defenses and given him a good deal of the flames.

Lylia rushed and crouched down by Blaise, lowering to a knee as she used the weight to help turn the wounded boy onto his back. "Blaise! Zabini! H-hey now… You can't just go like this!"

His eyes focused on her for a second or two as he grasped her nearest hand tenderly, shakily. "I-I… L-Lylia… Thank… Y… Y-" Blaise's sentence went unfinished as he coughed up blood, the pain wracking him violently.

Lylia choked on her tears as she shook her head, planting a single, gentle kiss on the back of his hand. "You need not say anything… J… Just go happily, please…" Talem watched tearfully himself from behind his invisible wall.

Out past the castle's boundaries, Elden gave a shaky sigh as he hexed his final foe into oblivion, the dozens of cloaked forms around him lying completely still. With one final breath, Lord Lesperance fell to the bloody ground of the ruins he had created.

Karen lied dully a few feet from her unconscious saviour, Aidon, her lifeblood slowly stopping its spilling from her abused and tortured neck.

Lylia bowed her head and wept without sound onto her fallen friend, her shoulders quivering as her tears blended with the downpour of rain around the alcove, the castle, and the Grounds.

In the courtyard, Eli gave a sharp wail as a lance taken from a suit of armor dug into his flank, dragging him to the stone, hard. Snape also received a slash from the lance as he turned to the attacker, a red jet of liquid shooting from him as he fell beside the bird's wing. Kayla managed to get rid of the lance-wielding Addonexi, her eyes burning in fury as she ran to Eli and petted his flank gently.

"Oh, baby… I'm so sorry, Eli…" She waved a hand to enchant two more nearby gargoyles, which hovered beside her and shifted Snape's form to lay him down next to her.

The Potions Master gave a growl in pain as he held his wound, flinging curses at the others around them who continued trying to strike them down. "This… is bad… I-I'm feeling numb…" Within a few moments, he had lost consciousness.

"NO! No, Professor! Don't you DARE die on me!" Kayla grabbed Snape's shoulders, shaking him desperately as the tears were already beginning to flood her eyes.

The Ravenclaw in the belfry raised her head slowly as she heard Nexus ascending the stairs without as much as a whimper. As his eerie face reappeared, it gave no noise betraying its charred skin. Lylia listened to him distantly, her gaze lowering as she slid Blaise's charm bracelet onto her own wrist.

"Who was he, huh?" wheezed Nexus, wounded. "Friend? Lover? Fiancé?"

Two cold blue eyes rose to stare down an insatiably-bloody gaze. Lylia stood steadily, the weariness of her muscles going unheeded. "He was… alone." She just barely raised her hands in front of her, her eyes not straying from the maddened red ones. Slowly at first, then more quickly, wisps of translucent white light started to rise from Blaise's still form.

Nexus drew a gleaming dagger from his hip, a malicious smirk curling his lip. "I'll make killing you fun."

Within a few seconds more, a more distinct ethereal shape formed from the white traces of light Lylia was drawing up from Blaise. A long, sharp silver form floated up to Lylia's waiting, poised hands. She gripped her ghostly Scythe, its otherworldly glow lighting up her face from below. Nexus's smirk fell.

"You can't be hurt by ordinary magic," stated Lylia as if reciting simple facts. "But you are still a mortal."

Blaise's soul gleamed like a forgotten star being recalled to light as Lylia and Nexus lunged in synchronization at each other. Nexus's knife tried to slice through her weapon, but instead it cut through mere air, her blade reforming as soon as the steel passed. With an arc of the Scythe, Nexus's own soul was split straight up his torso. He staggered past her and turned as if to attack again.

He had not such strength. He fell back, against the rail he had taken so much delight in loosening. His spirit tearing itself asunder behind his eyes, Nexus grinned crookedly up at Lylia's back. "Can you kill me, Death?"

Lylia dared not turn to the man, instead just turning her palms upward and opening her fists. She let go of the Scythe in doing so; it drifted up and away, finding its place with so many other entities in the afterlife. After a moment longer of her respectful silence, she said to Nexus, "You… have killed yourself."

The unsteady rail broke, sending its silent weight sailing down to jagged stone in the courtyard below.

Kayla silently let her tears escape her, her shaking of the Potions Master going weaker. "Get up…! Get up, damn you!" Beside her, Eli was shaking his head to stay awake. Nyx, still enlarged, poised herself as a guard around them.

A soft moan fell from Snape. "… The rain… Can you feel it…? It's… stopping, Hartland…"

Truly, the rain was stopping in its torrent, departing with the clouds foot by foot.


	10. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen: The End

Lylia went to the Mirror of Erised, gingerly placing her fingertips to its surface as she had done so in longing for its vision to be true, so many months in the past. This time, she prayed as her fear heightened. She prayed that her hand would pass through.

The Addonexi had all been killed by man or beast, none left to witness the gruesome death of their leader.

Kayla nodded with difficulty, swallowing her grief. "Yes, Professor… Yes, I can feel it… Open your eyes and see it… Please… We've won! Please…"

Snape opened his eyes in time, his expression at peace. "Ah… Tranquility."

The remaining pockets of students scattered throughout the castle carefully started seeking a place of grouping, as did the remaining members of the Aurors and Domus Aurea. The air was beginning to grow brighter.

Lylia grabbed Talem's hand tightly as hers jerked forward through the glass. Her eyes almost fearful to show their hope, she stepped back with her hold secure. Talem stepped forward to keep the hold on her hand, and he came back out of the Mirror. Back to their reality, Talem shared a shy smile like always with Lylia.

"… Long time no see, Lylia."

"Talem…"

Kayla began to cry openly, taking the Potions teacher's hand in a weak grip. Draco limped his way back to the courtyard and lowered himself next to her, his leg bloody and mangled and his clothes smeared with blood and grime. He still smiles, and he takes her hand. Looking over with bloodshot eyes, she almost snapped at him.

"Why are you smiling? So many are dead…"

He kept smiling. "We're still alive."

"So? For all we know, we're the last three humans alive in the castle."

Lylia watched Talem with shining eyes as he walked past her. A warm shiver went up her spine when she heard him give the bell a good, loud ring. The scattered groups throughout the castle reacted immediately, traveling with various degrees of struggles toward the battle's primary field, the courtyard. At that same time, a glorious dawn broke its way through the clouds.

Deep in the semi-destroyed classroom of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Aidon stirred at the sound of a bell. He looked around quickly, not yet recalling recent incidents.

"Bloody hell, I'm late!"

"Why must time be everything to you…?" sighed a familiar voice from behind him as a pair of warm hands was tending to his cuts and scrapes.

Regaining his senses, the Prefect turned a cherry red, seeing Karen as he turned to face the voice's source. Her inhuman allure had faded with the marks' disappearance from her neck, but the Ravenclaw smiled enchantedly.

"Karen… I think you're so beautiful this way."

The Gryffindor paused as she blushed a bright red herself. After a tense silence, she brought relief to both of them in a gentle, caring smile.

Kayla and Draco looked up at hearing the bell, the first of the two finally allowing a smile. "… Yeah… We're still here." Looking over, she saw Snape to be restfully asleep and let go of his hand.

"Marry me," Draco said simply to Kayla. His answer was a feverish and happy kiss.

Over the course of the following half-over, all of Hogwarts' population journeyed to the courtyard. Karen helped Aidon limp in shortly before Lylia led Talem down the stairs and out into the fresh air of the square where the others all were.

"I've waited so long to see you again," she smiled as her hand went to his arm. "All the stuff that's happened, you wouldn't believe it!"

Elden leaned against an archway to the Grounds, giving a silent, sad smile as he watched the two Ravenclaws. "I get the feeling my work here is done," he said barely above a whisper, and he left to go back toward the lake, where all the kelpies were returning to the water. Draco's posse and the Hufflepuff Dueling Club, all still intact, had removed Shadow's crate from the lake and worshipped her as they carried her to the Great Hall amid her yowling.

"Excellent, my son," Lucius Malfoy commended Draco as he appeared beside him, the son quickly drawing out of his kiss with his new fiancée. Lucius supported Snape and helped the barely-awake teacher to his feet. Other members of the Ministry of Magic and St. Mungo's Hospital, having received word from a successfully-recovering McGonagall, Apparated as well (but not so subtly).

Draco just held Kayla to him as she blushed. "Glad you approve, Father."

Kayla idly wondered if any others yet had been informed of her blood heritage by Snape. It was then that Narcissa ran through to hug her tightly.

"Oh, who would have thought! The heir to the very line! Oh, there could be no better fit for Draco!"

"S-surprised me too," Kayla managed a grin.

Talem looked at Lylia as she began to try explaining the whole story. She stopped as she saw him just smiling his same, quiet smile.

"Uhm… What is it, Talem?"

He put his hand around the stone rose on her necklace, his eyes knowing. "It's great that you've waited for me to come back and believed in my return and all this… But… I believe there's someone waiting for _you_."

Lylia didn't move for a few seconds as her friend's words sank in. She then slowly began to smile. At the smile's brightest degree she grabbed Talem's hand in silent understanding. The next second she was running alone down the nearest hallway, her race frantic. Those she passed knew not her reason for running but understood that something in it brought extreme urgency.

Talem looked into the Great Hall as he heard yowling, seeing Shadow lying lazily on the Staff Table, where half of the student body was giving her attention and strokes and scratches behind the ears in attempts to gain good luck from her. Eli caught sight of his old master and trotted to nuzzle him all over, crooning at Talem's well-missed laughter.

At that same time, Elden threw the second-to-last of his suitcases onto the top of the carriage waiting to take him to the train station. He lifted the last bag with a quiet, reserved look down at the necklace he wore.

"Elden! Elden, wait!"

He turned around in time to see Lylia running at full speed down the path toward him. Indigo eyes widened before Elden smiled, his bag dropping from his hands. Turning to Lylia, he opened his arms to enfold her in a single, close embrace that he would forever refuse to break.


End file.
